ON CERTAIN ACQUIRED HABITS. 19 



jbefore 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. 



