quire a very long-sustained and severe discipline, such as we do not choose to enforce. A creature must be subject to the passion of fear, in order to be effectually tamed by the hand of man. The horse and the dog have a certain amount of timidity in their disposition, which we largely avail ourselves of; whereas we seldom take in hand the taming of animals endowed with great natural courage.

19. The opposition to Intellectual trains, or to the stream of ideas ushered in by Contiguity and Similarity, is within the range of volition, and may be confirmed into habit. Two interesting cases may be specified. The concentration of the thoughts upon one subject as against wanderings, digressions, and chance solicitations, is a thing difficult to compel in early life and in untutored minds. Where there is frequent occasion for the exercise of the faculty, and strong motives in addition, the lapse of time will find the effort gradually diminishing, and, at last, the power will become completely dominant. This is a part of the apprenticeship of every highly intellectual profession, and merely follows up into the world of ideas the ability to command the attention against the diverting influence of objects of sense.

The second instance is the power of dismissing a subject from the mind at pleasure. To be absorbed with a matter of business, after it has ceased to be of any practical import, or to keep the thoughts going upon it, is a weakness to be overcome if possible. The force of the will can be interposed to clear out subjects loitering unnecessarily in the field of vision, and, although the first attempts of this kind will be met with considerable resistance, a fair amount of perseverance will not be without its reward. In the active business of life, men are frequently called upon to turn rapidly from one subject to another, forgetting what has just been settled, and applying the whole mind to the thing next in turn. The mere act of the will, in absolutely suspending all consideration of what has been engrossing the ideas for several consecutive hours, is a high and imperious dictation, not by any means obeyed in the early stages of one's apprenticeship.

20. I will here bring to a close the subject of this chapter;

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concluding, at the same time, the exposition of the force of Contiguity, Retentiveness, or acquisition. It has not been the object of the present discussion, to bring forward every power of the nature of a moral habitude belonging to our constitution. I might have introduced the mention of a variety of others of equal value to any of those selected. For example, habits of Obedience are created in opposition to self-will, and to the instinctive tendency to follow out one's prevailing temper. Habits of Authority have to be acquired, in spite of the disposition to sympathize with our fellow-beings under all circumstances. Habits of Promptitude, Activity, and Alertness are frequently the result of a long-continued contradiction of the natural character. Habits of Grace and Polite demeanour are, in many persons, a growth forced entirely from without, and not coinciding with a single tendency of the natural man. My purpose was to bring out into prominence the conditions that the growth of habit mainly depends upon; for, although some of those are sufficiently well understood, there are others that we do not always lay sufficient stress upon. It is admitted that repetition sustained for a length of time is a sine qua non; there is not the same adequate recognition of the need of an initiative, so strong and so well managed as to carry the day in every separate conflict, until such time as a considerable growth has taken place. Nor do we always advert in practice to the clearing of the mind from strong pre-occupations, the avoiding of feverish distractions, and over-tasking of every sort. I am not sure whether we do full justice to the fact that to him that hath shall be given,' and that, obversely, where there is a weak disposition naturally, the training must be very slow, gentle, and persevering. Some natures are distinguished by plasticity or the power of acquisition, and therefore realize more closely the saying that man is a bundle of habits. The vital energies. of the constitution would seem, in their case, to avoid imparting strong natural bents, and to flow towards the consolidation of every artificial or communicated bias. The opposite extreme may likewise be seen in the circle of any careful observer.

CHAPTER X.

PRUDENCE.-DUTY.-MORAL INABILITY.

1. BEFORE approaching the closing question of our present

subject, the question of the freedom of the will, I propose to set apart a chapter to the illustration of the various motives that play a part in duty and prudence. The principal arena of the conflict of ends is indicated under those designations; and there is, moreover, the attendant practice of forging motives as make-weights to throw into one side of the scale, with a view to determine the result in that exclusive direction.

Prudence, Happiness, The Ideal of Pursuit.—It has been now abundantly seen, that the constitution of the will, from the very commencement, provides for warding off pains and retaining pleasures. The following out of those instigations, the comparing of pleasures and pains with one another when a plurality concur, the having respect at each moment to the future as well as to the present, are the foundation elements of prudence and the pursuit of happiness. Recognising evil and good in the distance, we work for remote ends no less than for present sensations and emotions. We have before us the catalogue of possible evils, on the one hand, and of possible pleasures, on the other, knowing, at the same time, the greater or less probability of finding them on our path. We are aware, too, of certain objects that will afflict and pain us in an extraordinary degree, and of certain other objects that will give us an intense flow of pleasure. All these different sources and varieties of the two great opposing inspirations play alternately upon our voluntary mechanism, and give the direction to our labours and pursuits. We are constantly avoiding physical injuries, organic disease, cold,

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hunger, exhaustion, fatigue, and the list of painful sensations and feelings; we are seeking after the opposites of all these generally, while devoted with express assiduity to something that has a distinguishing charm to our minds. These are the motives personal to each individual, suggested by the contact of each one's susceptibilities with surrounding things. The upshot of the whole, the balance struck in the midst of conflict, is the course of prudence and the search for happiness that we should severally steer by, if left entirely to ourselves. The stronger impulses of our nature would have their ascendancy increased by repetition, and our character would be made up from those two great sources-the original promptings and the habits.

2. We are not suffered, however, to pursue a course so entirely self-prompted as that now described. Foreign influence is brought to bear in determining the will on points whereon one's own feelings have not yet given the cue. We are put under instruction and discipline as to the attainment of pleasurable ends, and the avoidance of painful. We are taught at first to eat and to drink, to clothe, to exercise and to rest, independently of our own promptings. Besides compulsory direction, we are in the presence of persons whose example we imbibe; and thus the traditions of the past, facing us in the customs of the present, take the initiative of life out of our own hands, and mould it according to a pre-established model. When this system has done its work, we are altered beings. The natural impulses of the individual are not wholly rooted out, but they are modified and overborne by new powers, and the calculation of our character must apply itself to the resultant of the two classes of impelling forces. The influence begun in tender years, by the authority and example of elders, masters, and associates, is continued in after-life by preaching, admonition, advice, persuasive address from tongue and pen, information to warn and to guide, the exhibition of bright examples and great successes, with their contrasts. The friend in private, the authorized monitor in public, are besetting us with motive power to sway our decisions. An

other class of persons seek merely to supply us with information to assist our judgment, without dictating the use we are to make of it. One man teaches us the means of preserving health, another the rules of economy and acquisition of wealth, a third points out the ways in which a good name is wou and lost, a fourth guides us to the sources of general knowledge. Having applied ourselves to some special end, we adopt all trustworthy suggestions as to the means, and we act accordingly. There is nothing in all this of the lawless, the capricious, the uncertain, the unpredictable. There may be a combination of influences at work, but each one has its characteristic and settled consequence, the same yesterday as to-day. It is difficult to say absolutely that the repetition of the same motive will lead to the same act, but that is only because we are not quite sure but that some other motive has arisen to intrude its efficacy upon the first.

3. The case is not complete until we add the devotion of a certain amount of mind, thought, leisure, to dwelling upon the motives on the side of prudence, and on the calculations and resolutions founded upon them. This is one of the ways whereby an accession of power passes to the side so favoured. When it is known that any one has this reflecting bent, there is confidently expected a greater degree of adherence to prudential resolves on that account.

Distant and future interests are impressed, on a mind given to entertaining them, during periods of deliberate meditation, and are, in consequence, all the more strongly represented in times of conflicting motives. No law of the physical world is more sure than the consolidation of the prudential incitements by such a procedure. He that is devoted to the pursuit of wealth and fortune, by thinking often of such ends as principal, as well as subordinate, is strengthened in his adhesion to them when attacked by the solicitations of ease or indulgence.

4. There is, as before remarked, such a thing as a character moulded at the first for a prudential career. A concurrence of strongly acting Will with an intellect retentive of good