244 The Animal Mind 



the nervous system, and of this effect we know no more than 

 that it exists. Jennings says that the disturbance set up in 

 the organism by the stimulus, by hunger or confinement, 

 as the case may be, not finding an outlet by one path of 

 discharge, seeks others in succession until one is found which 

 relieves the disturbed condition. This, we have seen, he 

 and others have found to be the case in very low forms of 

 animal life. But the crucial part of the phenomena we are 

 now considering is described in the following sentence : 

 " After repetition of this course of events, the change which 

 leads to relief is reached more directly, as a result of the 

 law of the readier resolution of physiological states after 

 repetition " (208). And that is all we know of the matter. 

 But we may well note the probability that a habit, in the 

 sense of a fixed way of action not innate in the individual, 

 may originate in two ways : first, by the loss of conscious 

 control in the case of a set of actions originally voluntary 

 and guided by ideas; and second, by the gradual increase 

 of speed and accuracy in the performance of a series of 

 actions, never at any time guided by anything but external 

 stimuli. In our own experience, the first kind of habit 

 formation has been of so much interest that it has diverted 

 attention from the second. Yet the latter is shown con- 

 stantly in the growth of skill that comes through the mere 

 repetition of a series of movements, apart from the " knowing 

 how," which means conscious control. 



86. The Psychic Aspect of dropping off Useless Move- 

 ments 



The conscious aspect of learning by dropping off useless 

 movements must consist largely in the mere shortening of 

 a period of unpleasantness and unrest. The useless move- 

 ments are unpleasant, the successful one brings pleasure; 



