THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS 



But can such habits of application be acquired by 

 everyone? Possibly not; yet after all it is marvellous 

 how quickly a habit may be taken on, and yet more mar- 

 vellous how persistent it tends to become once it is 

 thoroughly acquired. Indeed, the well-formed habit 

 comes finally not only to aid the will in its original pur- 

 pose, but actually to dominate the will and keep it loyal 

 to that purpose. A practical illustration of this is shown 

 in the familiar case of persons who start out in early 

 life to acquire a fortune, thinking then to turn from the 

 lines of trade and enjoy the benefits of their early 

 frugality. Habits of self-denial and saving come hard 

 at first; but at last they are "second nature," and when 

 at last the original goal is reached and judgment would 

 say, "Now turn and enjoy the fruits of your labor," 

 Habit says, "No; we will go on as we have begun." 

 The mad lust for more money and yet more, now no 

 longer purposeful, grows and persists while the in- 

 dividual lives. 



Similarly, in quite different fields, the same thing 

 holds. Darwin himself assures us, for example, that 

 his years of application to scientific ideas rendered him 

 insusceptible to any other theme; he could no longer 

 appreciate art or music. His mind had become a 

 mechanism solely for the elaboration of scientific ideas. 



This inability to shake off a habit that at first was hard 

 to acquire suggests the advantages of fixing the goal in 

 early life where one expects it to remain. The youth 

 is fortunate who, finding at the outset of his career a 

 congenial trade or profession, can say "this is for life" 

 and hold to his purpose. Good habits of work will 



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