XV.] THE LAWS OF HA.BIT. 177 



every one knows that being habituated, or accustomed, is 

 an explanation alike of being able to do what an unaccus- 

 tomed person could not do — as, for instance, to execute 

 a difficult piece of music ; and of being able to resist what 

 an unaccustomed person would have great difficulty in 

 resisting, such as great heat or cold, and impressions of par- 

 ticular kinds of horror or fear. These effects are opposite, 

 and it might appear that the weakening of impressions by 

 repetition is the result of a distinct law, opposite in its 

 character to the general law of habit ; but it is in reality a Both are 

 case of that law. A passive impression becomes weaker by q^q^Jj^^ 

 repetition, because the organism acquires the habit of not 

 responding to it. A passive impression means one which 

 is not followed by action. An impression which is not 

 followed by action differs from one which is followed by 

 action, not in the nature of the impression, but only in the 

 response the organism makes to it. The same impression, 

 acting on two similar organisms, may, according to circum- 

 stances, remain a merely passive impression on the one, 

 and may become an active stimulus to the other. To 

 mention a familiar instance : two men hear the same loud Instance 

 bell in the morning ; the one is accustomed to awake and effect'of an 

 get up at the sound, and he awakes ; the other is accus- accus- 

 tomed to disregard it, and he disregards it and sleeps sound, 

 through it.^ This view is supported by the fact, that it is 

 possible to increase the strength of merely passive feelings 

 — feelings, that is, which do not lead, and are not meant to 

 lead, to action — by the habit of brooding over them; and, 

 without so much mental action as is implied in brooding, 

 it is possible to give a mastery over the mind to the passive 

 emotions, especially to fear, merely by acquiring a habit of 

 yielding to it.^ 



All this is familiar ; but, so far as I know, it has not yet 

 been clearly pointed out that the law of passive impressions 

 weakening by repetition, while active habits strengthen 



1 I have met with this illustration of the law somewhere iu Whately's 

 writings. 



2 See Bishop Fitzgerald's Note B to Chap. V. of Butler's "Analogy of 

 Religion." 



N 



