ON CER TAIN A CQ UIRED HABITS. 1 9 



before he could acquire so great proficiency, and also 

 that there must have been a time when he did not 

 know how to do it at all. 



We may assume that there was a time when he 

 was yet so nearly on the point of neither knowing nor 

 willing perfectly, that he was quite alive to whatever 

 knowledge or volition he could exert; going further 

 back, we shall find him still more keenly alive to a 

 less perfect knowledge ; earlier still, we find him well 

 aware that he does not know nor will correctly, but 

 trying hard to do both the one and the other ; and so 

 on, back and back, till both difficulty and consciousness 

 become little more than a sound of going in the brain, 

 a flitting to and fro of something barely recognisable 

 as the desire to will or know at all much less as the 

 desire to know or will definitely this or that. Finally, 

 they retreat beyond our ken into the repose the in- 

 organic kingdom of as yet unawakened interest. 



In either case, the repose of perfect ignorance 

 or of perfect knowledge disturbance is troublesome. 

 When first starting on an Atlantic steamer, our rest 

 is hindered by the screw; after a short time, it is 

 hindered if the screw stops. A uniform impression is 

 practically no impression. One cannot either learn or 

 unlearn without pains or pain. 



