CHAPTEE XXXI. 



MENTAL HABIT. 



All actions 

 tend to 

 become 

 habitual. 



Motor 

 habits. 



Voluntary 



actions 



becoming 



habitual 



and con- 



sensuaL 



Mental 

 habit, or 

 associa- 

 tion of 

 ideas. 



IN the chapter on the Law of Habit I believe I have 

 shown that all vital actions whatever tend to repeat 

 themselves, and consequently to become habitual. We 

 have seen that every vital action may be classed under one 

 of the three denominations of formative, motor, and mental. 

 It is not a usual form of expression to speak of formative 

 habits, but I think I have shown that it is strictly accurate ; 

 and to speak of motor and mental habits — that is to say, 

 habits of action and habits of thought — is at once scien- 

 tifically accurate, and in accordance with general usage. 

 When habits are spoken of without any qualifying word, 

 it is motor habits that are generally meant ; and, indeed, 

 the whole organic creation contains no better illustration 

 of the formation of habit — individual, not hereditary 

 habit — than the power of human beings so to learn 

 mechanical arts, that actions which at first were per- 

 formed by a conscious effort of the will, at last become 

 consensual and unconscious ; so that (to return to a 

 former instance) a musician's fingers may be so trained 

 as to be guided almost, if not quite unconsciously, by 

 the sight of the printed notes. 



The law of mental habit is usually called the law of 

 the association of ideas. The association of ideas is a 

 subject that has been very much studied, and to good 

 purpose ; indeed, few subjects are more thoroughly ex- 

 plored or better vmderstood. But the isolated manner in 

 which psychology has been cultivated till now, has caused 

 its nature to be misconceived in one important respect. 



