114 PSYCHOLOGY. 



dressing himself ; the attitude of his body would absorb all his atten. 

 tion and energy ; the washing of his hands or the fastening of a button 

 would be as difficult to him on each occasion as to the child on its first 

 trial ; and he would, furthermore, be completely exhausted by his ex- 

 ertions. Think of the pains necessary to teach a child to stand, of the 

 many efforts which it must make, and of the ease with which it at 

 last stands, unconscious of any effort. For while secondarily auto- 

 matic acts are accomplished with comparatively little weariness — in 

 this regard approaching the organic movements, or the original reflex 

 movements — the conscious effort of the will soon produces exhaus- 

 tion, A spinal cord without . . . memory would simply be an idiotic 

 spinal cord. ... It is impossible for an individual to realize how 

 much he owes to its automatic agency until disease has impaired its 

 functions." 



The next result is that habit dim inisJies the conscious aMen- 

 tion in'fh icMch our acts are pe rforni^ l^ 



One iiiuY state this abstractly thus : If an act require for 

 its execution a chain, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, etc., of successive 

 nervous events, then in the first performances of the action 

 the conscious will must choose each of these events from a 

 number of wrong alternatives that tend to present them- 

 selves ; but habit soon brings it about that each event calls 

 up its own appropriate successor without any alternative 

 offering itself, and without any reference to the conscious 

 will, until at last the whole chain, A, B, C, B, E, F, G, rattles 

 itself off as soon as A occurs, just as if A and the rest of 

 the chain were fused into a continuous stream. When we 

 are learning to walk, to ride, to swim, skate, fence, write, 

 play, or sing, we interrupt ourselves at every step by un- 

 necessary movements and false notes. AYhen we are jjro- 

 ficients, on the contrary, the results not only follow with 

 the very minimum of muscular action requisite to bring them 

 forth, they also follow from a single instantaneous ' cue.' 

 The marksman sees the bird, and, before he knows it, he 

 has aimed and shot. A gleam in his adversary's eye, a 

 momentary pressure from his rapier, and the fencer finds 

 that he has instantly made the right parry and return. A 

 glance at the musical hieroglyphics, and the pianist's fingers 

 have rippled through a cataract of notes. And not only 

 is it the right thing at the right time that we thus involun- 

 tarily do, but the wrong thing also, if it be an habitual 



