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find individuals precociously disposed to take on prudential volitions, and to be susceptible to those interests of other living beings on whose account so much of this discipline is called for. The one general fact in the case is, that by a series of exercises, where some one consideration is made to overbear sensual solicitations in an unbroken series of trials, a confirming stream of the nervous power will give new force to the victorious side, enabling it to cope with stronger adversaries, while the sense of struggle and effort gradually dies away. The control over appetite demanded by a regard to health, so difficult in early life, or even in middle age, may become, by the aid of habit, so complete, that the individual scarcely suffers the twinge of temptation.

3. Take the practice of regular early rising. Here we have, on the one hand, the volitional solicitations of a strong massive indulgence, and on the other, the stimulus of prudential volition as regards the collective interests of life. I will avoid all extreme suppositions that would mar the illustration of the point in hand, and will assume that there is neither an unusual indifference to the indulgence of lying late, nor an unusual force of determination in favour of the pursuits and interests of the day. We require, then, in order to consummate a habit of early rising, in the first place, a strong and decided initiative. This is not a case for an easy and gradual training. I should not count much upon the plan of fixing a certain hour not difficult to get up at, and after a time advancing by a quarter of an hour, and so on. The proper means is, either a very strong putting forth of volition on the part of the individual, or an imperative urgency from without; while the hour that is to be final, should also be initial. Some necessity, that there is no escape from, compels a man from his early youth to be out of bed every morning at six o'clock. For weeks and months, and perhaps years, the struggle and the suffering are acutely felt. Meanwhile, the hand of power is remorseless in the uniformity of its application. And now it is that there creeps on a certain habitude of the system, modifying by imperceptible degrees the bitterness of that oft

repeated conflict. What the individual has had to act so many times in one way, brings on a current of nervous power, confirming the victorious, and sapping the vanquished, impulse. The force of determination that unites the decisive movement of jumping out of bed with the perception of the appointed hour, is invigorated slowly but surely; and there is an equal tendency to withdraw the nutritive power that keeps up the pleasurable sensibility opposed to the act. I cannot doubt that there is such a thing as literally starving a very acute pleasurable or painful sensibility, by crossing it, or systematically discouraging it. So that on both sides, the force of iteration is softening down the harsh experience of the early riser, and bringing about, as time advances, an approach to the final condition of mechanical punctuality and entire indifference. Years may be wanted to arrive at this point, but sooner or later the plastic element of our constitution will succeed. Not, however, I think, without the two main conditions of an adequate initiative, and an unbroken persistence. If the power applied in the first instance is inconstant or merely occasional, and if periods of indulgence are admitted to break the career of the learner, there is very little hope of ever attaining the consummation described. A great change in the direction of the vitality of the system is needed in order that the still small voice of daily duty may overpower, without an effort, one of the strongest of our fleshly indulgences; and in ordinary circumstances, we can calculate upon nothing less than the persistence of years to establish such a diversion. Here, as in the intellectual acquisitions, there are great individual differences of plastic power. Moreover, the circumstances of life may favour or impede the efficacy of it in such an instance as the present. If a man's existence is regular, free from overwork and harassing trouble, his moral habitudes will prosper accordingly. Eating cares, and excessive toil injure the system at some point or other, and the injury may happen to light upon the property of plastic adhesiveness. Then, too, it is to be considered that the general temper and feelings of the mind may concur with a special discipline, or

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may not. It may be an object congenial to my prevailing emotions and tastes to fall into a mechanical punctuality of life, and to reclaim the morning hours for favourite pursuits. If so, this will enhance the currents that tend to the habit in question. Should I, on the contrary, never feel any liking or interest in the attainment of this habit, the absence of any such supporting stimulation will make the acquirement proportionally tedious.

4. The above example contains all the leading elements of the acquisition of habits running counter to strong appetites. The difficulties to be overcome are very much the same in the other instances; namely, the power of the appetite itself, the inadequacy of the initiative, the occasional backslidings, and the want of any strong inclination in the mind towards the points to be gained by a complete control. With regard to the initiating influences, the most powerful undoubtedly is external compulsion; next to which we may rank example, moral suasion, and those other modes whereby we are acted on by fellow-beings without absolute coercion. Lastly, the mind's own volitions, determined by the pleasures and pains of its own experience, and by motives wherein other men's views have no part, must be the sole agency in a large number of instances. When those that have gone before us, dictate for our guidance the maxims resulting from their experience, we trust our future to their wisdom rather than to our own choice; and this is necessarily the predicament of the young. Rousseau, in his Emile, has carried out to extreme lengths the opposite principle of purely self-determining forces. He proposes that no inclination of a child should ever be directly curbed, but that some method should be found of bringing it under a course of trial and error in every instance, so that its own revulsion from pain should be the sole check. He would allow it to feel actually the injurious consequences of misplaced desires, instead of thwarting these by the hand of authority. Unquestionably much may be said in favour of the superior force of dear-bought experience, as compared with mere advice, persuasion, or example, but the scheme of

Rousseau is utterly impracticable, if from no other reason than the impossibility of realizing in sufficient time all the evil consequences of imprudences. Besides, some of these are so severe that it is an object to save the child from them. We cannot by any amount of ingenuity place infancy in the position of free self-determination occupied in mature life. Moreover, although authority may be carried too far in human life generally, yet as no human being is ever emancipated from its sway, an education in submission is as essential a preparation for going out into the world as an education in a sound bodily regimen.

5. Habits of Temperance generally belong to the present head, and their illustration might be given in detail if space admitted. A strong commencing volition founded on the pains of excesses, and the pleasures of a healthy frame, would of itself induce acts of self-restraint, and the individual might then be said to be temperate simply by the force of will. If the practice of a rigid self-denial were merely rare and occasional, there would be nothing else in the case; no growth would take place so as to render the volition more easy as life advanced. When, however, the volition is so strong on the point as to operate on all occasions for a lengthened period, the plastic force adds a concurring power that supersedes the necessity of high resolve. This alone is a habit of temperance.

6. I shall advert now to a different class of habits based on resistance to the solicitations of sense, namely, the habitual control of the Attention, as against the diversions caused by outward objects. The senses being incessantly open to impressions from without, whenever anything pleasurable occurs, the power of volition cherishes and retains the effect, and takes away the active energies and dispositions from any other thing not so pleasing; and on the other hand, a painful impression stimulates the voluntary operation of getting out of its reach. Now, although the occurrence of intense pleasures, or intense pains, among the sensations occurring at random through the various senses, is not very

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frequent, we are liable to a large number of petty pleasures and pains from the objects that strike our sight, hearing, touch, or smell. Every one of these petty impressions has its volitional stimulus, and without the presence of some more powerful agency, either of volition, or of habit, the mind and the activity are constantly tossed about in a multitude of directions. In children, this is seen in full operation. We have to be put under training to resist those various solicitations, and to keep the mind as steadily fixed upon the work in hand as if they did not happen. The process here consists in becoming indifferent to what at the outset caused pleasure or pain. We can never be free from impressions of touch, but we contract the habit of inattention to them. The occupation of the mind upon things foreign draws off the currents of power from the tactile susceptibility, which, in consequence, becomes so starved, that even when there is little else to engross the attention, we are scarcely at all alive to the extensive action of our clothing upon the surface of the body. A still more remarkable instance is presented by the ear. Sounds being, in general, more acute in their impression than touches, it is not so easy to contract an insensibility to them. We may, however, acquire this power under favourable circumstances. It is possible to contract the habit of not attending to noises and conversation. To arrive at this point, we must not be over-sensitive to sound from the first, otherwise the initiation would be extremely difficult. There should be some one thing so far capable of engrossing the attention as to overpower, for the time, the buzz of conversation, or the distraction of noise. Some minds are so susceptible to sound, that nothing can ever place them in this situation of insensibility, even for a single half-hour; and, in their case, the acquisition would be impracticable for want of a commencement. If we can but make a beginning, or find any occasion where indifference can be induced for a short time, the habit will follow. The solicitations of Sight have to be met in the same way, and the very same remarks are applicable. We have to assume an attitude of indifference to the great expanse