152 ALFRED T. SCHOFIELD^ ESQ., M.D., M.R.C.S., ETC., ON 



unconsciously iuto tlie gutter if he hears that magic word 

 " 'Tenshun," which in liis mind is so associated with his httie 

 finger and the seam of his trousers that his hands at once fall 

 to their allotted place. But time would fail us to describe 

 the marvels of physical habits, and we must pass on, especially 

 as we have still greater wonders in store. 



Mental habits. — -Habits of thought are as truly and readily 

 and often unconsciously established as habits of body, and 

 indeed the two are sometimes inscrutably mixed ; as in 

 character as displayed in handwriting as well as in the lines 

 that habit has traced upon the face, rendering physiognomy 

 a true science. We have also ideal habits, and here as else- 

 where habit means ease. 



Attention maybe deliberately manufactured as a habit by 

 the inattentive. For this is the charm and value about habit ; 

 that if we begin soon enough, and particulaiiy in childhood, 

 and pre-eminently before the age of ten, we can absolutely 

 engraft into the child's character many of those valuable 

 mental qualities which it rnay lack. The habit of enqidry is 

 easily acquired in young life, and is invaluable in after years, 

 and simply means going through life with one's eyes open 

 instead of shut. 



The habit of perfect execution is invaluable, but must be 

 tauo:ht early. Perhaps no other mental habit leads to greater 

 success in every calling in hfe. Sloyd is the physical 

 means by which this habit is best taught in childhood ; for the 

 essence of sloyd is not what is made, but that it should be 

 perfectly finished in all its parts. 



Industrji is another invaluable habit. 



Moral habits. — But we must pass on to moral habits. Now 

 if we wish to produce some valuable moral quality in a child, 

 the easiest way to do it is to establish the quality as a habit ; 

 the most difficult and uncertain is to depend on direct pre- 

 cept. To be always telhng a child to be truthful is a poor 

 way of making him so ; but to accustom him to use his words 

 in talking exactly as a painter uses his colours in painting, 

 so that his word picture shall be a faithful copy of what he 

 is describing, painted in words instead of water colours ; this 

 persevered in, will give him the habit of truthful speaking as 

 a fine art, apart from its moral value, which of course will 

 only strengthen the habit. In a similar way most moral 

 quahties can be formed as mental habits— deliberately, surely, 

 and easily, as compared with any other method ; and if suffi- 

 ciently well established, it is harder to depart from them than 



