HABIT THE ROOT OF CULTURE 119 



But generally it has been of inestimable benefit 

 to mankind. The impulses of charity, modesty, 

 and decency would fare badly in the struggling 

 crowd of emotions were they not assisted by 

 practice. Our instinctive impulses may, as we 

 have seen, be grouped in a series of pairs ; and 

 mankind has agreed that, of each pair, one is 

 more desirable than the other, so selecting the 

 social, provident, kindly, and self-restraining im- 

 pulses as of particular benefit to society. Im- 

 pulses of these classes, when strengthened by 

 habit, are the moral ideals, which, commended by 

 philosophy and sanctified by religion, have lit 

 up the path of human endeavour. Habit may 

 restrict the influence of religious reformers and 

 radical politicians ; but it affords civil govern- 

 ments some measure of stability, enables them to 

 forecast with some confidence the drift of public 

 opinion, preserves the decencies of civilized life, 

 and is the basis of the conventional morality 

 which makes people respectable. 







Habit appears to influence the behaviour of all 

 living creatures. J In the lower ranges of the 

 animal kingdom it can find but little scope amidst 

 the imperious mandates of directive instinct. As 

 we ascend the scale, and the authority of instinct 

 becomes less widely embracing, habit plays a part 

 of increasing importance in regularizing behaviour. 

 And, since habit is the outcome of experience, 

 whereas instinct is a hereditary constraint, the field 

 for individuality in action gradually broadens. 

 Such conduct as in man is guided by acquired 

 habits, amongst the lower vertebrates is very 



1 Plants show traces of memory or habit. They ordinarily 

 make their strongest growth during the dark hours. But if day 

 and night be reversed by the use of electric light, they will 

 continue for a time to grow by the clock. 



