ON CERTAIN ACQUIRED HABITS. 3 



consciously or unconsciously following four distinct 

 trains of musical thought at the same time, nor from 

 making his fingers act in exactly the required manner 

 as regards each note of each part. 



It commonly happens that in the course of four or 

 five minutes a player may have struck four or five 

 thousand notes. If we take into consideration the 

 rests, dotted notes, accidentals, variations of time, &c, 

 we shall find his attention must have been exercised 

 on many more occasions than when he was actually 

 striking notes : so that it may not be too much to say 

 that the attention of a first-rate player may have been 

 exercised — to an infmitesimally small extent — but 

 still truly exercised — on as many as ten thousand 

 occasions within the space of five minutes, for no note 

 can be struck nor point attended to without a certain 

 amount of attention, no matter how rapidly or uncon- 

 sciously given. 



Moreover, each act of attention has been followed 

 by an act of volition, and each act of volition by a 

 muscular action, which is composed of many minor 

 actions ; some so small that we can no more follow 

 them than the player himself can perceive them ; 

 nevertheless, it may have been perfectly plain that the 

 player was not attending to what he was doing, but 

 was listening to conversation on some other subject, 

 not to say joining in it himself. If he has been play- 

 ing the violin, he may have done all the above, and 

 may also have been walking about. Herr Joachim 

 would unquestionably be able to do all that has here 

 been described. 



