288 ADVAKCEMENT OP LEARVlXa. [BOOK \lh 



laws, books, studies, <fec. ; for these are tlie things which reign 

 in men's morals. By these agents the mind is formed and 

 subdued ; and of these ingredients remedies are prepared, 

 which, so far as human means can reach, conduce to the 

 preservation and recovery of the health of the mind. 



To give an instance or two in custom and habit, the opi- 

 nion of Aristotle seems narrow and careless, which asserts 

 that *' custom has no power over those actions which are 

 natural ;i" using this example, that if a stone be a thousand 

 times thrown up into the air, yet it will acquire no tendency 

 to a spontaneous ascent. And again, that " by often seeing 

 or hearing, we see and hear never the better." For though 

 this may hold in some things, where nature is absolute, yet 

 it is otherwise in things where nature admits intension and 

 remission in a certain latitude. He might have seen, that a 

 strait glove, by being often drawn upon the hand, will 

 become easy ; that a stick, by use and continuance, will 

 acquire and retain a bend contrary to its natural one ; that 

 the voice, by exercise, becomes stronger and more sonorous ; 

 that heat aiid cold grow more tolerable by custom, &c. And 

 these two last examples come nearer to the point than those 

 he has produced. Be this as it will, the more certain he had 

 found it that virtues and vices depended upon habit, the 

 more he should have endeavoured to prescribe rules how 

 such habits were to be acquired or left off ; since numerous 

 precepts may be formed for the prudent directing of exer- 

 cises, as well those of the mind as the body. We will here 

 mention a few of them. 



And the first shall be, that from the beginning we beware 

 of imposing both more difficult, and more superficial task.* 

 than the thing requires. For if too great a burden be laid 

 upon a middling genius, it blunts the cheerful spirit of hope ; 

 and if upon a confident one, it raises an opinion, from which 

 he promises himself more than he can perform, which leads 

 to indolence ; and in both cases the experiment will noti 

 answer expectation. And this always dejects and confoundaj 

 the mind. But if the tasks are too light, a great loss isij 

 sustained in the amount of the progress. 



Secondly, to procure a habit in the exercise of any faculty,] 

 let two seasons be principally observed : the one when th«j 

 •I Nicom. Eth. ii. last ch. 



