COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



by pleasurable or painful feelings. In becom- 

 ing instinctive, they lapse partially or entirely 

 from consciousness. The child in learning to 

 walk and talk must will each movement and 

 rationally coordinate it with other movements 

 in order to attain the desired end. But the man, 

 in walking and talking, is unconscious of the 

 separate movements and volition serves only to 

 set them going. In learning to read, the child 

 must consciously remember each letter, com- 

 bine it with others into a word, and associate 

 the word with the thing signified ; and this last 

 process is repeated in later years when we learn 

 foreign languages. But in reading our own lan- 

 guage, or a foreign one which has been thor- 

 oughly learned, the association of words and 

 things is automatic. In reading an English book, 

 in which French quotations are inserted, one fre- 

 quently passes from one language to the other 

 and back again without noticing the change, 

 if the attention be concentrated on the subject 

 matter. In learning to play the piano, there is 

 at first a vast amount of conscious association 

 between the written notes, the keyboard, and 

 the muscular adjustments of the fingers, wrists, 

 and arms ; but an accomplished pianist will play 

 a familiar piece while his attention is directed to 

 other matters. The case is similar with writing, 

 and indeed with all habitual actions which re- 

 quire nervo-muscular coordination. In many 

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