158 LIFE AND HABIT. 



year ago, or perhaps, even two years ; but more than 

 this, we rarely remember, except in such cases as the 

 winter of 1854-1855, or the summer of 1868; the 

 rest is all merged. 



We observe, then, that as regards small and often 

 repeated impressions, our tendency is to remember 

 best, and in most detail, what we have been doing 

 most recently, and what in general has occurred most 

 recently, but that the earlier impressions though for- 

 gotten individually, are nevertheless, not wholly 

 lost. 



2. When we have done anything very often, and 

 have got into the habit of doing it, we generally take 

 the various steps in the same order; in many cases 

 this seems to be a sine qua non for our repetition of 

 the action at all. Thus, there is probably no living 

 man who could repeat the words of " God save the 

 Queen" backwards, without much hesitation and 

 many mistakes ; so the musician and the singer must 

 perform their pieces in the order of the notes as written, 

 or at any rate as they ordinarily perform them ; they 

 cannot transpose bars or read them backwards, without 

 being put out, nor would the audience recognise the 

 impressions they have been accustomed to, unless 

 these impressions are made in the accustomed order. 



3. If, when we have once got well into the habit 

 of doing anything in a certain way, some one shows us 

 some other way of doing it, or some way which would 

 in part modify our procedure, or if in our endeavours 

 to improve, we have hit upon some new idea which 

 seems likely to help us, and thus we vary our course, 



