FORMINC; RIGHT HABITS 211 



the habit is formed. Fortunate are the boys and guis of the age 

 who read this book, for they are able to form good habits easily. 

 But a man or woman of middle age has formed habits, and to 

 change them and make new ones is very difficult. The nervous 

 system is no longer plastic. 



Importance of Forming Right Habits. — Among the habits which 

 should be acquired early in life are those of studying properly, of con- 

 centrating the mind, of learning self-control, and, above all, of con- 

 tentment. Get the most out of the world about you. Remember 

 that the immediate effect of the study of some subjects in school may 

 not be great, but the cultivation of correct methods of thinking may 

 be of the greatest importance later in life. The men and women who 

 have learned how to concentrate on a problem, how to weigh all 

 sides with unbiased minds, and then to decide on what they believe 

 to be right, are the efficient and happy ones of their generation. 



''The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse 

 than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioning 

 our characters in the wrong way. Could the young but reahze how soon 

 they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more 

 heed to their conduct while in the plastic state. We are spinning our own 

 fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke 

 of virtue or of vice leaves its never-so-little scar. The drunken Rip Van 

 Winkle, in Jefferson's play, excuses himself for every fresh dereliction by 

 saying, ' I won't count this time ! ' Well ! he may not count it, and a kind 

 Heaven may not count it ; but it is being counted none the less. Down among 

 his nerve cells and fibers the molecules are counting it, registering and storing 

 it up to be used against him when the next temptation comes. Nothing we 

 ever do is, in strict scientific literalness, wiped out. Of course this has its good 

 side as well as its bad one. As we become permanent drunkards by so many 

 separate drinks, so we become saints in the moral, and authorities in the prac- 

 tical and scientific, spheres by so many separate acts and hours of work. Let 

 no youth have any anxiety about the upshot of his education, whatever 

 the line of it may be. If he keep faithfully busy each hour of the working 

 day, he may safely leave the final result to itself. He can with perfect certainty 

 count on waking up some fine morning, to find himself one of the competent 

 ones of his generation, in whatever pursuit he may have singled out." — 

 William James, Psychology. 



Some Rules for Forming Good Habits. — Professor Home gives 

 several rules for making good or breaking bad habits. They are : 

 First, act on every opportunity. Think of the good habits you would 



