ADDITIONAL TOPICS IN HUMAN BIOLOGY 159 



direct 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 tune to learn his 

 drill for instance, to put himself into the attitude of * attention ' 

 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 think- 

 ing 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 discharged 

 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 thor- 

 ough, and its effect had become embodied in the man's nervous 

 structure." 1 



237. Importance of habit. The tremendous importance of 

 making our habits our allies instead of our enemies cannot be em- 

 phasized 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 con- 

 duct 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 Rip 

 Van Winkle, in Jefferson's play, excuses himself for every fresh dere- 

 liction by saying, 1 1 won't count this tune! ' Well! he may not 

 count it, and a kind Heaven may not count it; but it is being 

 counted, none the less. Down among his nerve cells and fibers the 

 molecules are counting it, registering and storing it up to be used 

 against him when the next temptation comes. Nothing we ever 

 do is, in strict scientific literalness, wiped out. Of course this has 

 its good side as well as its bad one. As we become permanent drunk- 

 ards by so many separate drinks, so we become saints in the moral, 



1 Huxley's "Lessons in Elementary Physiology," Macmillan 

 Company. 



