48 LIFE AND HABIT. 



of the blood, different in kind to the rapid unconscious 

 action of a man playing a difficult piece of music on 

 the piano ? There may be in degree, but as a man 

 who sits down to play what he well knows, plays 

 on, when once started, almost, as we say, mechanically, 

 so, having eaten his dinner, he digests it as a matter of 

 course, unless it has been in some way unfamiliar to 

 him, or he to it, owing to some derangement or occur- 

 rence with which he is unfamiliar, and under which 

 therefore he is at a loss how to comport himself, as a 

 player would be at a loss how to play with gloves on, 

 or with gout in his fingers, or if set to play music up- 

 side down. 



Can we show that all the acquired actions of child- 

 hood and after-life, which we now do unconsciously, or 

 without conscious exercise of the will, are familiar 

 acts acts which we have already done a very great 

 number of times ? 



Can we also show that there are no acquired actions 

 which we can perform in this automatic manner, which 

 were not at one time difficult, requiring attention, and 

 liable to repeated failure, our volition failing to 

 command obedience from the members which should 

 carry its purposes into execution ? 



If so, analogy will point in the direction of thinking 

 that other acts which we do even more unconsciously 

 may only escape our power of self-examination and 

 control because they are even more familiar because 

 we have done them oftener ; and we may imagine that 

 if there were a microscope which could show us the 

 minutest atoms of consciousness and volition, we should 



