THE SPKINGS OF CHARACTER. 37 



and conditions of life, but ultimately, in consequence of their 

 training, became bodies of men to whom the honour and defence 

 of their country and of the empire could be safely entrusted. 



The Rev. F, A. Walkek, D.D. — Time will only allow me to 

 allude very briefly to a few of those points that I have noted in 

 the course of the instructive and edifying address we have had 

 the privilege of listening to. 



The point that impressed itself on me particularly was the 

 very striking way in which tlie lecturer remarked on habit and 

 its power which coincides with the text-book we used to read at 

 Oxford. 



I notice that Dr. Schofield's deductions from habit agree almost 

 entirely with Aristotle's Ethics, and I suppose no book, with the 

 sole exception of Holy Scripture, has exercised such an influence 

 on the mind of scholars as Bishop Butler's " Analogy." 



There was one passage about habit that also struck me, and 

 that was that the constant repetition of acts tended to produce a 

 habit so strong that it became, in time, overpowering in its 

 influence ; and then those habits — all unconscious, as Aristotle 

 tells us — reproduce acts ; nor can anything, he says, that was 

 accustomed to be done in one particular way be done otherwise. 

 We may remember the text in Job — " Man is born unto trouble as 

 the sparks fly upward." That seems to contain the same illus- 

 tration as Aristotle on habit. 



Professor Orchard, B.Sc. — While thanking the author for his 

 paper I may say that his remarks upon ideals struck me as par- 

 ticularly valuable, and also what he said about tendencies. I cannot 

 but regret that an address which certainly afl'ords considerable scope 

 for discussion, as the Chairman has pointed out, should not have 

 been put before us in a printed form. It is exceedingly incon- 

 venient, especially in matters philosophical, to criticise, unless 

 you have the very -ipsissima verba before you. It is hardly fair, 

 indeed, to the author of the address to do so. 



I have noted some expressions which Dr. Schofield used to 

 which I am sorry to say I can by no means assent. " Character is 

 the sum of our mental and moral attributes." No doubt we may 

 agree to that ; and its " springs and roots ... lie deep in the un- 

 conscious mind." " The springs are," says Dr. Schofield, " heredity, 

 habit, and wall." First of all, I must entirely differ from the author 

 that any such thing exists as " unconscious mind." The great 



