AN ENQUIRY INTO THE FORMATION OP HABIT IN MAN. 145 



the direct control of our Avill ; so that while we have little or 

 no share in the accumnlation of our life capital, we have a 

 large control over its expenditure. I do not say " entire/' 

 because some is used in carrying on the natural functions of 

 the body. Were the fact otherwise, and our will had to 

 control the processes of physical life, life would indeed not 

 be worth living, and intelligent existence an impossibility. 

 The voluntary and non-voluntary systems form, as a whole, 

 two well-marked centres of government, each having at its 

 command the necessary nerves, muscles, and organs. In the 

 former case the nerves are white and the muscles striped, in 

 the latter the nerves are mainly grey or non-meduilated, 

 and the muscles plain or smooth. 



What we have now to consider is how, in the evolution of 

 higher intellectual life, we have the power at will to change 

 voluntary into involuntary action, to an almost unlimited 

 extent, by the formation of habits ; a process important to be 

 understood, and of the greatest bearing on the well-being 

 and progress of the race ? 



What habit is. — Having therefore now briefly touched on a 

 few of the leading points connected Avith the ordinary action 

 of the nervous system, we proceed to consider the direct 

 subject of this Paper, "the formation of habit in man." Let 

 us first of all see what we mean and understand by " habit." 



It is diflScult to conceive of habit with reference to in- 

 animate objects, and the word is no doubt to some extent 

 inapplicable, and yet it is an interesting question as to what 

 are the limits of its sphere of action. 



Are the very laAvs of motion the result originally of habit? 

 Are the chemical combinations of elements and the forma- 

 tion of different constant natural compounds and mixtures 

 the result originally of long repeated repetition fonning at 

 last habits with cast-iron bonds that cannot be broken ? 

 Again, do we not see in an old dress, even in a room, a some- 

 thing that speaks of habit, an adaptability of shape and crease 

 from constant wearing and use, or of fittings and furniture, 

 that cannot be seen in a new coat or in lodgings? Does not 

 an old viohn that has been the property of some great master 

 (not only made by some great maker) retain in its very fibres 

 the habit of resounding to the grand chords he struck with 

 far greater ease than any instrument that had not acquired 

 this "habit" by long use ? Passing onto living things. Do 

 not trees acquire habits of gi'owth from their environment, 



