DEPENDENCE ON ASSOCIATION. 87 



mon maxims of education, — 'Exercise strengthens 

 faculty,' 'Practice makes perfect,' — illustrate this 

 fundamental fact of our psychic life, viz. that the 

 results of our several actions persist, rendering a 

 renewal of these actions easier, and also contributing 

 to the development of higher forms of activity." 



How true and universal is the maxim, " Practice " 

 (or repetition) " makes perfect," all will admit ; but a 

 few illustrations will make clearer its bearing upon 

 the present subject. Thus we know that an action, 

 at first extremely difficult, such as fingering a musical 

 instrument, becomes, after long practice, so easy that 

 it can be performed while the attention of the per- 

 former is directed to other matters. The successive 

 actions follow each other without separate volitions, 

 and when such a series of actions becomes well prac- 

 tised, it requires considerable effort to omit any one 

 action in the series. Other kinds of actions may be 

 repeated so frequently as to become habitual and be 

 performed unconsciously, as brushing a fly from the 

 face, or smoothing the hair or beard. The repetition 

 of a mathematical solution, or an abstruse train of 

 philosophical speculation, enables the mind eventu- 

 ally to follow the chain of reasoning with perfect 

 ease. All of our actions and thoughts are perfected 

 by repetition, and what at first required a long time 

 for its performance, becomes eventually performed in 



