HABAKKUK 



2652 



HABIT 



One of its oldest and most extensive industries 

 is the cultivation of flowering bulbs and tubers, 

 mainly hyacinths and tulips, which are shipped 

 to all parts of the world. Population, about 

 70,000. 



HABAKKUK, habak'uk, or hab'akuk, a 

 short book of the Old Testament, named after 

 its author, the eighth of the minor Hebrew 

 prophets and one of the tribe of Levi. Al- 

 though not dated, the book was evidently a 

 production of the Chaldean period, about 600 

 B. c., during the early part of Jehoiakim's reign. 

 In the book, which is a poem as well as a 

 prophecy, Habakkuk complains to God because 

 he fears that the innocent will suffer as well 

 as the guilty, but God tells him that the just 

 shall be saved by faith. The destruction of the 

 Babylonian Empire is foretold, and the latter 

 part is a beautiful song of prayer and praise 

 expressing the quiet confidence of faith in God 

 and in His goodness. 



HABEAS CORPUS, ha' be as kor'pus, WRIT 

 OF, a term incorporated in the English lan- 

 guage from the Latin and meaning, in sub- 

 stance, you are commanded to have the body. 

 It compels the proper authority to produce a 

 person in court at a time named. The writ of 

 habeas corpus is called "the great writ of 

 personal liberty," because it makes unjust 

 imprisonment or wrongful detention almost im- 

 possible. The writ is issued by a court at 

 the request of some friend of a person accused 

 of crime and held prisoner, and commands his 

 custodian to bring him before the court, where 

 his claims may be heard and judged. To ob- 

 tain a writ of habeas corpus it is only necessary 

 to observe legal formalities in presenting the 

 request to the court, for except in times of 

 public danger the right of any person to secure 

 this writ cannot be denied. The foundation 

 of the present form of habeas corpus in all 

 English-speaking nations was laid in England's 

 Magna Charta (which see), and the American 

 and Canadian writs are an adaptation of the 

 English form. 



The application of this writ is very liberal. 

 Besides its usual uses, as named above, cases 

 have been heard where it was invoked to solve 

 domestic wrongs, as when a wife is held captive 

 and maltreated by her husband, and where a 

 child of divorced parents has been held by one 

 parent longer than the time allowed by the 

 court. Any person accused of crime and held 

 too long without a hearing may have a writ 

 of habeas corpus issued in his behalf and thus 

 compel his accusers to appear in court to show 



sufficient cause for holding him longer in cus- 

 tody. 



HAB'IT. "Sow an act," says an old proverb, 

 "reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character." 

 Another popular saying declares that "Habit 

 is second nature." These statements do not 

 overemphasize the part played by habit in the 

 life of the ordinary human being. A habit, by 

 definition, is a fixed tendency to perform cer- 

 tain acts in a certain way a tendency so strong 

 that it is beyond the jurisdiction of the will and 

 sometimes beyond that of consciousness. 



How Habits Are Formed. Most habits, to 

 be sure, originate in conscious acts, but every 

 time the act is performed it becomes easier 

 and simpler, until in time it ceases to need at- 

 tention. When a baby is first given a spoon 

 and allowed to feed himself, every act is a 

 conscious one. He picks up the spoon, care- 

 fully turns it right side up, takes up the food 

 with it, and guides it as- accurately as may bo 

 to his mouth. But not a very long time elapses 

 before the whole business of eating becomes 

 habitual, and, in a manner, takes care of itself. 



Listen to a child practicing her music lesson. 

 With her eyes first on the printed page, then 

 on the keyboard, she carefully picks out each 

 note and as carefully chooses its counterpart on 

 the piano. But hear the same child years later. 

 Apparently the brain says to the fingers, "Play 

 the Paderewski Minuet," and they play, quite 

 without guidance from the brain; for the per- 

 former can carry on a conversation and not 

 seriously interfere with her playing, for it has 

 now become habitual. 



How Accounted For. This is the psycho- 

 logical, or mind, phase of habit, but in the end 

 it must work back to physiological, or bodily, 

 processes. The general tendency of these scien- 

 tists know, though they cannot describe just 

 what really happens. Everyone has watched a 

 little stream flowing down a hillside in its 

 rather deep-cut channel. There must have 

 been a time, long ago, when there was no 

 stream bed when the first drops of water 

 found their way down the hill, flowing around 

 a stone here, slipping through a sandy spot 

 there, but always choosing the easiest path, 

 the line of least resistance. Next time the 

 snow melted on the hilltop and the water 

 began to run down, that same path was just 

 a little easier because it had been traveled 

 before; and each time this became more and 

 more noticeable. Finally, following the route 

 of the first tiny trickle, there appeared the 

 actual stream bed, deep-carved in the rock. 



