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 unconsciouslv, or 

 \ without conscious exercise of the will, are familiar 

 acts — acts which we have already done a very great 

 * I number of times ? 



/ v Can we also show that there are no acquired actions 



jiv/* which we can perform in this automatic manner, which 



were not at one time difficult, requiring attention, and 



V liable to repeated failure, our volition failing to 



\jt,J 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 w r ere a microscope which could show us the 

 minutest atoms of consciousness and volition, wc should 



