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considered, but which requires a careful examination, — the 
principle of habit. This was the most powerful force with 
which the philosopher was acquainted. It is, beyond all 
doubt, one of the mightiest which can be brought to act on 
human nature. But it is one of a peculiar character. It 
resembles the lever, which can only bring its power into 
active operation when it has a fulcrum on which to rest. 
With a suitable one it can move a world ; without one it can 
lift nothing. So it is with the principle of habituation as a 
spiritual power. Philosophy recognizes its existence. But 
to make it efficacious for the reformation of mankind, it 
requires a moral fulcrum on which to rest. That w&s pre- 
cisely the thing which philosophy could not find, and which 
Christianity asserts that it has discovered. 
27. The influence of habit on the condition of mankind is 
one of tremendous might. By its action on men in large 
masses it may be said to have made them what they are, and 
it is the most powerful influence which has been brought to 
bear on the individual. Man is born into a particular state of 
thought and feeling. Under its influences his character is 
usually formed. In that character, for the most part, he 
develops himself, grows to maturity, and dies. Even the most 
powerful minds which have succeeded in breaking through the 
conditions of their birth only imperfectly succeed in detaching 
themselves from the present and the past. If we each of us 
were to examine how much of our feelings and principles of 
action we owe to ourselves, and how much is the creation of 
habit, we should find the latter greatly to preponderate. 
Whatever changes can be effected by the aid of the principle 
of habituation, let it be observed, that from the nature of the 
case they must be of extremely gradual operation. Under 
the action of this principle, movement unquestionably exists 
in the moral world ; but it resembles that of a glacier. Its 
characteristic is slowness, and its reality can only be discerned 
when it is measured after the lapse of considerable intervals 
of time. Causes have existed in modern society which have 
imparted to it a more rapid movement than in ancient times. 
Among the chief of these has been Christianity, which has 
introduced a new mode of acting on the minds of men, as 
we shall consider presently. But the only mighty influence 
with which philosophy was acquainted, which was capable of 
effecting improvements in the moral and spiritual condition 
of mankind, was, as I have said, that of habituation. 
For the most part, however, this power was in the hands 
of her enemies. Hence the intense desire of the philosopher 
to create an ideal state. While his ideal state never became 
