our associations by HABIT; and, as no man forms such habit without willing or choosing to form it, we have here another instance of the indirect power of volition. By the term, habit, when it is applied to our mental operations, we mean that facility or readiness, which they acquire by being frequently repeated. (See §. 117.) The consequence of repetition or frequent practice is, that certain associations are soon very much strengthened, or that a facility in them is acquired. It is a well known fact, that almost any person may become a punster or rhymer by taking the pains to form a habit, that is, by increasing the facility of certain associations by frequent repetition. By punning we understand the power of readily summoning up, on a particular occasion, a number of words different from each other in meaning, but resembling each other, more or less, in sound.--That facility of association, which is acquired by frequent repetition and which is expressed by the word HABIT, is the great secret of fluency in extemporaneous speaking. The extemporaneous speaker must, indeed, have ideas; no modification of association whatever can supply the place of them. But his ability to arrange them in some suitable order and to express them in words without previous care and effort, is the result, in a great measure, of habits of association.-See Stewart's Elements, Vo. I. CH. VI. PT. 2.; Historical Dissertation, PT. I. §. II. CH. 2.; Brown's Lectures, XLI, XLII, XLIX.

CHAPTER NINETEENTH.

OF INTELLECTUAL HABITS.

3. 214. Of the nature and extent of habits in general.

THE HE closing remarks in the last chapter naturally introduce us to the more particular consideration of intellectual habits. The definition already given more than once, (§. §. 117, 213,) is, that Habit is a facility or readiness, resulting from what is usually termed practice; that is, from frequency of repetition. The fact, that the facility, implied in HABIT, is owing to mere repetition or practice, we learn from experience. And as it has hitherto been found impracticable to resolve it into any principles more elementary, and as consequently we know nothing more than the mere fact, it may at present be regarded, as an ultimate law in our constitution. The applica

We apply it

tion of the term HABITS, is very extensive. to the dexterity of workmen in the different manual arts, to the rapidity of the accountant, to the coup-d'oeil of the military engineer, to the tact and fluency of the extemporaneous speaker, and in various other instances,

In the mechanical arts, and in all cases where there is a corporeal as well as mental effort, the effect of practice will be found to extend both to the mind and the body. Not only the acts of the mind are quickened and strengthened, but all those muscles, which are at such times employed, become stronger and more obedient to the will. Indeed the submission of the muscular effort to the volition is oftentimes rendered so prompt by habit, that we

are unable distinctly to recollect any exercise of volition, previous to the active or muscular exertion.—But it is the object of this chapter to limit its considerations to such habits, as concern our intellectual part.

§ 215. Habits of perception or external observation.

Perception, or that notice, which the mind takes of external objects, is susceptible of being greatly controlled by Habit. The readiness, with which we seize upon whatever is peculiar and striking in such objects, will depend in no small measure upon it.- We see evidence of this in cases of this kind; When a person leaves his native land for the purpose of travel abroad, it can hardly fail to be the natural consequence, that he will notice objects with great care, such as the general face of the country, natural scenery, and buildings, together with whatever is worthy of observation in the manners, customs, and laws of the inhabitants. Having in this way formed the habit of observation abroad, he is found to retain it on his return home; and immediately notices many things among his own people, which had hitherto escaped his remark.

We often find proof of the existence of mental habits, which affect the readiness of external observation, in men of different callings or professions. A skilful printer will at once notice every thing of excellence or of deficiency in the mechanical execution of a printed work. A farmer of a tolerable degree of experience and discernment requires but a slight inspection, in order to give an opinion on the qualities of a piece of land, and its suitableness for a settlement.An experienced painter at once detects a mannerism in colouring, combinations and contrasts of light and shade, and peculiarities of form, proportion, or position, which infallibly escape a person of more limited experience. The almost intuitive vision of the skilful engineer is beyond doubt i most cases merely a habit. He has so often fixed his cy upon those features in a country, which have a relation his peculiar calling, that he instantly detects the bearing

of a military position; its susceptibility of defence, its facilities of approach and retreat, &c.

§. 216. Of habits of external perception in connection with the improvement of the other senses when one is lost.

There is another well known and interesting fact, illustrative of the views in the preceding section. When one of our senses is by some means lost, there is an improvement of the others; when a person loses his sight, there is an increased sensibility of the touch. We cannot suppose, (as already intimated at §. 54,) that there is any change in the physical constitution, which is the ground of the improvement of the remaining senses. Such a supposition is unnecessary, and, as the fact can be explained without it, is unphilosophical. Another explanation is, therefore, to be preferred.When all the senses remain, and are in full exercise, there are a multitude of slight suggestions from them, which do not arrest our notice, because they are not of any immediate and urgent practical value. They at most receive but slight attention, and if noticed at all, are not remembered. But when one or more of the senses is gone, those slight suggestions at once assume an increased importance. They become necessary to one's enjoyment, and perhaps existence. The mind, therefore, is under a sort of necessity of delaying upon and marking a variety of evanescent intimations from the senses, which it formerly neglected. It not merely observes, but examines them, and puts them to hardly less practical use than many more obvious sensations. So that without admitting the notion of a physical improvement of the senses, when one is lost, the truth merely is, that our powers of external observation are strengthened by practice; the mind observes and retains the slight suggestions of the remaining senses, more than it formerly did.The views of this and the preceding section will apply to conceptions, or those states of mind, which exist in the absence of their appropriate objects. But it is unnecessary to delay upon this, as it has before been proved and illustrated at §. 117.

§. 217. Of habits in connection with association.

The power of association is likewise susceptible of be ing controlled by habit. This has been already implied in the statement of the third secondary law of association, which is as follows; The parts of any mental train are the more readily suggested in proportion as they have been the more frequently renewed.Instances of the effect of habit in connection with association have been alluded to in a former section. Thus, if a person make it a practice to recall words, which have a similar sound, this particu lar form of association is so strengthened, that in the end it is by no means difficult to secure the recurrence of such words. If a public speaker have fixed in his mind certain permanent principles, which are to guide him in the division, and subdivision of his discourse, he immediately applies them to every subject of debate. By means of the habit, which he has formed, he is not only enabled to resolve a subject into suitable parts, but to pass without hesitation or danger of mistake from one part of it to another.

"I sometimes amuse myself, (says Dr. Priestley,) in playing on a flute, which I did not learn very early, so that I have a perfect remembrance that I exerted an express voluntary power every time that I covered any par ticular hole with my finger. But though I am no great proficient on the instrument, there are some tunes which now very often play without ever attending to my fingers, or explicitly to the tune. I have even played in concert, and, as I was informed, perfectly in tune, when I have been so absent, that, excepting at the beginning, I did not recollect that I had been playing at all."Here it is evident, there was at first merely a simple association, viz. between a certain position of the finger and the emission of a certain sound, which was indicated by the mu sical notes. The union thus formed was both weak, and slow and lingering in its results. It gradually acquired strength and facility by repetition; that is, a HABIT of a sociation was formed.