446 MAN BECOMES THE CONQUEROR OF THE WORLD 



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 

 realize 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 practical 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 com- 

 petent ones of his generation, in whatever pursuit he may have singled 

 out." — William James, Psychology. (Permission of Henry Holt & Co.) 



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 

 like to form and then form them. Second, make a strong start. 

 No half-hearted effort ever was successful in forming a habit. 

 Third, allow no exception. You cannot establish the new pathway 

 in the nervous system, if you, like Rip Van Winkle, " don't count 

 this one." Fourth, for the bad habit establish a good one. Most of 

 us know our own faults. Some of us have far too many. Per- 

 haps it is only a little thing such as forgetting some of the numerous 

 conventionalities that make up table manners ; it may be some- 

 thing far more important, an uncontrolled emotion or feeling. 



