282 STUDIES IN PHYSIOLOGY 



these activities require our attention. We have made these 

 movements so many times that they have become automatic. 

 In other words the conscious parts of our brains, our 

 cerebral hemispheres, have trained the lower nerve centers 

 (central ganglia, medulla, and cerebellum) to direct a good 

 many of our everyday doings. Our attention is thus set 

 free to carry on other kinds of work. 



" As every one knows, it takes a soldier a long time to 

 learn his drill for instance, to put himself into the atti- 

 tude of ' attention 7 at the instant the word of command 

 is heard. . But, after a time, the sound of the word gives 

 rise to the act, whether the soldier be thinking of it, or 

 not. There is a story, which is credible enough though 

 it may not be true, of a practical joker, who, seeing a dis- 

 charged veteran carrying home his dinner, suddenly called 

 out ' Attention!' whereupon the man instantly brought his 

 hands down, and lost his mutton and potatoes in the gutter. 

 The drill had been thorough, and its effect had become 

 embodied in the man's nervous structure." Huxley's " Les- 

 sons in Elementary Physiology," Macmillan Company. 



Importance of Habit. The tremendous importance of 

 making our habits our allies instead of our enemies can- 

 not be emphasized too strongly. 



" The hell to be endured hereafter," says Professor James, 

 "of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we 

 make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioning 

 our characters in the wrong way. Could the young but 

 realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles 

 of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct 

 while in the plastic state. We are spinning our own fates, 

 good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest 

 stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never-so-little scar. 

 The drunken Eip Van Winkle, in Jefferson's play, excuses 

 himself for every fresh dereliction by saying, 'I won't 

 count this time!' Well! he may not count it, and a kind 

 Heaven may not count it; but it is being counted none 



