HABIT. 123 



is_that in the acquisition of a new habit, or the lea\'ing off 

 ofjin old^one, we must take care to launch ourselves with as 

 strong and decided an initiative .as possible. Accumulate all 

 the possible circumstances which shall re-enforce the right 

 motives ; put yourself assiduously in conditions that en- 

 courage the new way ; make engagements incompatible 

 with the old ; take a public pledge, if the case allows ; in 

 short, envelop your resolution with every aid you know. 

 This will give your new beginning such a momentum that 

 the temptation to break down will not occur as soon as it 

 otherwise might ; and every day during which a breakdown 

 is postponed adds to the chances of its not occurring at all. 

 The seco nd maxim is : Never suffer an exception to occur 

 tin the neiv hahit is securely rooted in your life. Each laj)se 

 is'liEe the letting fall of a ball of string which one is care- 

 fully winding uj) ; a single slip undoes more than a great 

 many turns will wind again. Continuity of training is the 

 great means of making the nervous system act infallibly 

 right. As Professor Bain says : 



"The peculiarity of the moral habits, contradistinguishing them 

 from the intellectual acquisitions, is the presence of two hostile powers, 

 one to be gradually raised into the ascendant over the other. It is 

 necessary, above all things, in such a situation, never to lose a battle. 

 Every gain on the wrong side undoes the effect of many conquests on 

 the right. The essential precaution, therefore, is so to regulate the 

 two ojiposing powers that the one may have a series of uninterrupted 

 successes, until repetition has fortified it to such a degree as to enable 

 it to cope with the opposition, under any circumstances. This is the 

 theoretically best career of mental progress." 



The need of securing success at the outset is imperative. 

 Failu re at first is apt_to dampen the energy of all future 

 attempts, whereas past experience of success nerves one to 

 future vigor. Goethe says to a man who consulted him 

 about an enterprise but mistrusted his own powers : " Ach ! 

 you need only blow on your hands [ " And the remark 

 illustrates the effect on Goethe's spirits of his own habitu- 

 ally successful career. Prof. Baumann, from whom 1 bor- 

 row the anecdote,* says that the collapse of barbarian 



* See the admirable passage about success at the outset, in his Haudbuch 

 der Moral (1878), pp. 38-43. 



