ON CERTAIN ACQUIRED HABITS. 1 1 



perfectly, we were conscious of our acts of perception, 

 volition, and reflection, but when our knowledge has 

 become perfect we no longer notice our consciousness, 

 nor our volition ; nor can we awaken a second artificial 

 consciousness without some effort, and disturbance of 

 the process of which we are endeavouring to become 

 conscious. We are no longer, so to speak, under the 

 law, but under grace. 



An ascending scale may be perceived in the above 

 instances. 



In playing, we have an action acquired long after 

 birth, difficult of acquisition, and never thoroughly 

 familiarised to the power of absolutely unconscious 

 performance, except in the case of those who have 

 either an exceptional genius for music, or who have 

 devoted the greater part of their time to practising. 

 Except in the case of these persons it is generally 

 found easy to become more or less conscious of any 

 passage without disturbing the performance, and our 

 action remains so completely within our control that 

 we can stop playing at any moment we please. 



In writing, we have an action generally acquired 

 earlier, done for the most part with great unconscious- 

 ness of detail, fairly well within our control to stop at 

 any moment; though not so completely as would be 

 imagined by those who have not made the experiment 

 of trying to stop in the middle of a given character 

 when writing at full speed. Also, we can notice our 

 formation of any individual character without our 

 writing being materially hindered. 



Reading is usually acquired earlier still. We read 



