56 LIFE AND HABIT. 



facto, that a baby breathes and makes its blood circulate, 

 it knows how to do so ; and the fact that it does not 

 know its own knowledge is only proof of the perfection 

 of that knowledge, and of the vast number of past 

 occasions on which it must have been exercised 

 already. As we have said already, it is less obvious 

 when the baby could have gained its experience, so 

 as to be able so readily to remember exactly what to 

 do ; but it is more easy to suppose that the necessary 

 occasions cannot have been wanting, than that the 

 power which we observe should have been obtained 

 without practice and memory. 



If we saw any self- consciousness on the baby's part 

 about its breathing or circulation, we might suspect 

 that it had had less experience, or profited less by its 

 experience, than its neighbours — exactly in the same 

 manner as we suspect a deficiency of any quality 

 which we see a man inclined to parade. We all 

 become introspective when we find that we do not 

 know our business, and whenever we are introspective 

 we may generally suspect that we are on the verge of 

 unproficiency. Unfortunately, in the case of sickly 

 children, we observe that they sometimes do become 

 conscious of their breathing and circulation, just as in 

 later life we become conscious that we have a liver 

 or a digestion. In that case there is always some- 

 thing wrong. The baby that becomes aware of its 

 breathing does not know how to breathe, and will 

 suffer for his ignorance and incapacity, exactly in the 

 same way as he will suffer in later life for ignorance 

 and incapacity in any other respect in which his peers 



