THE LAW OF HABIT. 27 



playing, seems capable of bringing on the whole connected train, 

 without further attention on the player's part. 



Leaving for the present our physical nature, we note that our 

 intellectual life also owns the sway of habit. No idea ever arises in 

 the mind except through association, and one of the conditions of the 

 strength of association is habit or i-epetition. The customary thoughts 

 which hold possession of the mind, the customary emotions which 

 the individual feels, and which are often his most striking peculiarities, 

 the ordinary methods adopted by men in working out the problems 

 and aiming at the ends of life, the forms of speech, the various 

 degrees in power of attention, deliberation and resolution, all exhibit 

 to us the workings of this great formative law of nature. 



Turning now to our moral nature, we find in the growth of 

 character, the building up or the pulling down of the virtues or vices, 

 the same dominion of habit. Witness the teaching of a child the 

 duty of unselfishness. The sacrifice so painful at first, after a few 

 trials, becomes easier ; the tendencies opposing are gradually weakened 

 and dissipated, those favorable are gradually increased, until finally 

 there may even be developed a tendency to over-do the unselfish act, 

 when care has to be taken lest unselfishness should exceed the limits 

 within which alone it is a virtue. 



These few instances are sufficient to give some idea of the extensive 

 power enjoyed by habit. But not only is its influence far-reaching 

 and wide-spread, its offices and effects also vary in the different 

 spheres that come under its action. There is, perhaps, no principle 

 of our nature characterized by greater variety in this dii'ection.^ No 

 other can to such an extent control and modify our physical con- 

 stitution, accustoming it to strange uses and adapting it to its 

 environment ; no other has such power, without changing our 

 psychical nature, to alter the whole method and drift of our intellec- 

 tion ; nor is any other fraught with more important practical lessons, 

 for it is only through consolidation of habits that moral character is 

 placed upon a fixed and reliable foundation, and only through develop- 

 ment in accordance with the law of habit can we ever hope to attain 

 that destiny for which conscious life and morality were bestowed 

 upon us. It is the greatest of all the appointed means to this end. 



In spite, however, of the inestimable importance of the functions 

 of habit, strangely enough, when we turn to the history of psycho- 

 ogical speculation, throughout its i-ange we can find perhaps no part 



