HABIT. This familiar word applies to a certain portion of our acquired powers or aptitudes. Common usage does not very closely define the kind or extent of acquisitions intended by it. Habits may be either intellectual or moral. We speak of a habit of talking or writing, as well as of a habit of early rising, or of truthfulness. The principle of the human constitution on which the growth of 'habit depends, when generalized to the utmost, may be called the power of retentiveness, or of plastic growth, and is one of the foundations of the intellect, inasmuch as memory and all the other intellectual faculties involve it in a greater or less degree. See INTELLECT, and ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS, - Education of every kind must proceed upon this property, and should he con ducted in conformity with its exact nature and laws. The maxims that govern the form ation of habits are the same as the principles of mental acquireineut in every shape. Some of the most important of these may be indicated here.
1. It should be understood, at the outset, that all persons are not alike susceptible of the growth of new powers, or of the process of education; nor is the same person equally susceptible as regards all subjects. The consequence is. that a much greater amount of practice is necessary in one case than in another; iteration being the mode of supplying the defective cohesiveness of the system.
2. However common the remark, that youth is the season for improvement, it may be doubted if we generally appreciate to the full degree the superior plasticity of early years, and the gradual decrease of the property as life advances. The as yet unoccupied state of the infant mind must be taken into account along with the very great energy of the principle of growth, which gives a firmness and security of hold to earl): impressions beyond everything that is communicated in later life. ;We see this in the impossibility of eradicating a provincial accent after one has grown to maturity; so the opinions and contracted in youth can seldom be changed in middle or advanced life.
3. In aquiring habits, the favorable disposition of the mind is of the greatest impor tance. Liking, taste, or predilection for the task concentrates all the .energies of the system upon the work, and favors to the utmost the cementing process. A strong
natural liking will often compensate for want of natural aptitude, by making the most of what power there is.
4. In the default of natural liking for the subject, the attention may be secured to a certain extent by pains and penalties; but as these waste and enfeeble the powers of life altogether, there is a loss on the whole, although there may be a gain in the particular case. The education of the young cannot be conducted wholly on the principle of fas cination; but if pain has to be frequently or systematically resorted to, no considerable general progress need be looked for.
5. Health, freshness, and vigor in the bodily system are conditions of the growth of habit. The brain may be powerful in a feeble body, but a certain co-operation of the other organs is necessary to the integrity of its functions; and when the stage of nervous exhaustion has been reached,there is nothing gained by continuing the exercise. After adequate rest and refreshment, the plastic property is at its height; there is a limit to ;what it can perform, which is marked by the approaching sen e of fatigue; and at this point, the efforts in the way of learning should cease. The prevailing error hitherto has been to overrate this limit, and to keep up school exercises too long at one time. A. short intermission enables the work to be resumed.
6. These observations apply to mental acquisitions generally. In the peculiar case of moral acquisitions—such as habits of fortitude, courage, contentment, honest dealing, obedience—some special considerations are applicable. In the first place, there must lie -a powerful initiative, or some influence strong enough to make a decided commence ment and to keep up the desired conduct for a certain length of time. Either the coercion of some authority, or a powerful example, or an energetic resolution of the individual will, should induce the person to enter on the course prescribed, and to perse vere until the plastic process, in other words, the power of habit, has had time to oper ate. The commencing stimulus may then be gradually withdrawn in favor of the self-sustaining force that iteration has engendered.