THE SPKINGS OF CHARACTER. 31 



latioii, I need hardly say, being very different. Of course, 

 the results of such training may not be seen till long after ; 

 for we may notice here that the springs and roots of 

 character lie deep in the unconscious mind — the flowers and 

 fruit blossom — and bear in consciousness. 



Now AA-itli regard to the second great spring of Habit, may 

 I just turn yoin- attention, for one moment, to the physical 

 side of the question ? Professor Hill at Cambridge and others 

 have shown that sensaticms and impulses that at first rise into 

 consciousness and require effort and will to produce action, 

 if sufficiently frequent and the resulting action be the same,, 

 eventually do not rise into consciousness at all, but are 

 "short circuited," and performed without effort, or the active 

 intervention of the will ; in other words, actions at first 

 consciously performed become unconscious as they become 

 habits, as, for instance, walking and the act of reading. 

 To put my left (or right) foot first into my stocking 

 soon liecomes an unconscious habit, and I do it as a 

 matter of course. As long as an action proceeding from a 

 now principle is performed consciously, oris performed with a 

 certain amount of effort, we have no reason as Ave have seen to 

 believe that the principle forms part of character — in fact, it 

 is clear that it does not, because on other occasions we do not 

 act in the same or similar way. But when an action 

 becomes habitual the principle at the root of that action 

 begins to form part of character, and is a spring of conduct 

 that can be relied and calculated upon ; in other words, I 

 may possess a virtue, or a virtue may possess me, and there 

 is all the difference between the two. If I teach a dirty 

 boy to wash his hands before meals I do not make cleanliness 

 a part of his character; but if he habitually washes his 

 hands and is made to be clean in other ways by a watchful 

 parent or teacher, for a length of time, he eventually 

 becomes a clean boy, and cleanliness becomes engraved on 

 his character, so as to form a fresh spring of action througli- 

 out his life that can be relied upon. This is shown in 

 the j)rinciple, " Train up a child in the way he should go and 

 when he is old he toill not depart from it " — (because it is 

 made part of his character). At the same time let us guard 

 against the error of supposing that nothing can be a part of 

 character that is performed consciously. I may be a most 

 truthful person naturally, and yet tell the truth deliberately. 



It is well to note therefore in this instnnce, and in many 

 others, because a positive statement is made on one side^ 



