c u s 
’who are !n the ftate of nature without culture : our tafte 
for virtue and knowledge improves (lowly ; but is capa¬ 
ble of growing (ironger than any other appetite in hu¬ 
man nature. 
To introduce an abtive habit, frequency of abts is not 
fufficient without length of time : the quickelt fuccelTion 
of abts in a (liort time is not fufficient; nor a flow fuccef- 
fion in the longed time. The effect mud be produced 
by a moderate foft adtion, and a long feries of eafy touches, 
removed from each other by ffiort intervals. Nor are 
thefe fufficient without regularity in the time, place, 
and other circumdances of the adtion ; the more uni¬ 
form any operation is, the fooner it becomes habitual. 
And this holds equally in a paffive habit; variety, in 
any remarkable degree, prevents the effedt; thus any 
particular food will fcarcely ever become habitual where 
the manner of dreffing is varied. The circumdances 
then requilite to augment a moderate pleafure, and at 
the long-run to form a habit, are weak uniform adts, re¬ 
iterated during a long courfe of time, without any con- 
fiderable interruption: every agreeable caufe that ope¬ 
rates in this manner will grow habitual. 
Affebtion and averfion, as didinguiflted from paffion on 
the one hand, and on the other from original difpolition, 
are, in reality, habits refpedting particular objedts, ac¬ 
quired in the manner above fet forth. The pleafure of 
1‘ocial intercourfe with any perfon mud originally be 
faint, and frequently reiterated, in order to edablifh the 
habit of affection. Affection thus generated, whether it 
be friendfliip or love, feldom fwells into any tumultuous 
or vigorous paffion ; but it is, however, the dronged ce¬ 
ment that can bind together two individuals of the hu¬ 
man fpecies. In like manner, a (light degree of difgud 
often reiterated with regularity, grows into the habit of 
averfion, which commonly fubfids for life. Objedts of 
tade that are delicious, far from tending to become ha¬ 
bitual, are apt, by indulgence, to produce fatiety and 
difgud: no man contradls a habit of fugar, honey, or 
fweet-meats, as he doth of tobacco : 
Thefe violent delights have violent ends. 
And in their triumphs die. The fweeted honey 
Is loathfome in its own delicioufnefs. 
And in the tade confounds the appetite ; 
Therefore love mod’rately, long love doth fo ; 
Too fwift arrives a tardy as too flow. Skakefpearc. 
The fame obfervation holds with refpedt to all objedts 
that being extremely agreeable raife violent paffions : 
fuch paffions are incompatible with a habit of any fort: 
and in particular they never produce affebtion nor aver¬ 
fion : a man who at firft fight falls violently in love, has 
a drong defire of enjoyment, but no ad'edtion for the wo¬ 
man : a man who is furprifed with an unexpebted fa¬ 
vour, burns for an opportunity to exert his gratitude, 
without having any affebtion for his benefabtor : neither 
does defire of vengeance for an atrocious injury involve 
averfion. It is, perhaps, not eafy to fay why moderate 
pleafures gather drength by cuflom : but two caufes 
concur to prevent that effedt in the more intenfe plea¬ 
fures. Thefe, by an original law in our nature, increafe 
quickly to their full growth, and decay with no lefs pre¬ 
cipitation : and cuflom is too flow in its operation to 
overcome that law. The other caufe is not lefs power¬ 
ful : exquifite pleafure is extremely fatiguing ; occafion- 
ing, as a naturalid would (ay, great expence of animal 
fpirits; and of fuch the mind cannot bear fo frequent 
gratification, as to fuperinduce a habit: if the thing that 
raifes the pleafure return before the mind have recovered 
its tone and relifh, difgud enfues inflead of pleafure. 
A habit never fails to admonilh us of the wonted time 
of gratification, by railing a pain for want of the objebt, 
and a defire to have it. The pain of want is always fird 
felt; the delire naturally follows; and, upon prefenting 
the objebt, both vanifli indantaneoufly. Thus a man 
accultomed to tobacco, feels, at the end of the ufual in- 
T O M. 495 
terval, a confufed pain of want; which at fird points at 
nothing in particular, though it loon fettles upon its ao- 
cudomed objebt: and the fame may be obferved in per- 
fons addibted to drinking, who are often in an uneafy 
redlefs date before they think of the bottle. In plea¬ 
fures indulged regularly, and at equal intervals, the ap¬ 
petite, remarkably obfequious to cudom, returns regu¬ 
larly with the ufual time of gratification ; not fooner, 
even though the objebt be prefented. This pain of want 
arifing from habit, feems direbtly oppofite to that of fa- 
tiety ; and it mud appear lingular, that frequency of gra¬ 
tification fhould produce effebts fo oppofite, as are the 
pains of excefs and of want. The appetites that refpebt 
the prefervation and propagation of our fpecies, are at¬ 
tended with a pain of want fimilar to that occafioned by 
habit: hunger and third are uneafy fenfations of want, 
which alvvays precede the defire of eating or drinking'; 
and a pain for want of carnal enjoyment, precedes the de- 
fire of an objebt. The pain being thus felt independent 
of an objebt, cannot be cured but by gratification. Very 
different is an ordinary paffion, in which defire precedes 
the pain of want: fuch a paffion cannot exilt but while 
the objebt is in view ; and therefore, by removing the 
objebt out of thought, it vanilheth with its defire and 
pain of want. 
The natural appetites above-mentioned, differ from 
habit in the following particular : they have an undeter¬ 
mined direbtion toward all objebts of gratification in ge¬ 
neral ; whereas an habitual appetite is direbted to a par¬ 
ticular objebt: the attachment we have by habit to a 
particular woman, differs widely from the natural paffion 
which comprehends the whole lex ; and the habitual 
relilh for a particular difli, is far from being the fame 
with a vague appetite for food. That difference not- 
withftanding, it is Itill remarkable, that nature hath en¬ 
forced the gratification of certain natural appetites effen- 
tial to the fpecies, by a pain of the fame fort with that 
which habit produceth. The pain of habit is lefs under 
our power than any other pain that arifes from want of 
gratification : hunger and third are more eafily endured, 
efpecially at firff, than an unufual intermiflion of any 
habitual pleafure : perfons are often heard declaring* 
they would forego deep or food, rather than tobacco or 
fnuff. We muff not, however, conclude, that the gra¬ 
tification of an habitual appetite affords the fame delight 
with the gratification of one that is natural: far from 
it; the pain of want only is greater. The (low and re¬ 
iterated abls that produce a habit, ftrengthen the mind 
to enjoy the habitual pleafure in greater quantity and 
more frequency than originally ; and by that means a 
habit of intemperate gratification is often formed : after 
unbounded acts of intemperance, the habitual relilh is 
foon reftored, and the pain for want of enjoyment re¬ 
turns with freffi vigour. 
The caufes of the prefent emotions hitherto in view, 
are either an individual, fuch as a companion, a certain 
dwelling-place, a certain amufement; or a particular 
fpecies, fuch as coffee, venifon, or any other food. But 
habit is not confined to fuch. A conffant train ol trifling 
diverfions may form fuch a habit in the mind, that it 
cannot be eafy a moment without amufement: a variety 
in the objebts prevents a habit as to any one in particu¬ 
lar : but as the train is uniform with refpebt to amule- 
ment, the habit is formed accordingly ; and that fort of 
habit may be denominated a generic habit, in oppofition 
to the former, which is a Jpecific habit. A habit of a 
town-life, of country-fports, of folitude, of reading, or 
of bufinefs, where fufficiently varied, are inftances of 
generic habits. Every fpecific habit hath a mixture of 
the generic ; for the habit of any one fort of food makes 
the tafte agreeable, and we are lond of that tade where- 
ever found. Thus a man deprived of an habitual ob¬ 
jebt, takes up with what molt refembles it; deprived of 
tobacco, any bitter herb will do rather than want; a 
habit of.puntfh makes wine a good refource; accuftomed 
