MEMORY, 7 



(without intensity) is chiefly relied upon for the formation 

 of habits of discipline, is defective ; because the nature of 

 the obedience thus obtained is too weak to oblige the 

 animal to yield himself absolutely to its influence. The 

 old, tedious methods of gradually inducing a horse to obey 

 the rein, take months to produce an effect which at any 

 moment is liable to be nullified by disturbing circumstances 

 of no great force. When, however, obedience to the rein is 

 taught (as I shall explain further on) in a manner which it 

 is impossible for the horse to resist, the intensity of the 

 impression produced will be superior to that of almost 

 any opposing agency. Here the action, which is the result 

 of the strongest motive, will, in almost all cases, be in 

 accordance with the teaching of the discipline which the 

 horse had previously found to be irresistible. We must 

 disabuse our minds of the old fallacy (which has done 

 much to retard progress in the art of horse-breaking) that 

 quick methods are necessarily less permanent in their 

 effects, than those which demand a much longer time 

 for their carrying out. In saying this, I in no way wish 

 to convey the idea that repetition is useless. On the con- 

 trary, it will be needed in almost all cases to confirm a habit, 

 no matter how strong the first impression may have been. 

 Acting on the principle of intensity of impression, with 

 suitable repetition, we shall obtain far better breaking 

 results in a tenth of the time required by those who depend 

 chiefly on repetition. 



The power of memory is, like instinct, susceptible of 

 cultivation. 



Connected with memory, there are three points to which 

 I would wish to direct the attention of my readers : 

 (i) With age, the power of making new associations of 

 ideas becomes diminished ; (2) fatigue, either mental or 

 physical, impairs this power ; and (3) the greater the 



