sense-impressions_ and in part of past experiences. These past
experiences are brought forth from subconsciousness. Some are
voluntarily brought forth. Some present themselves without our conscious
volition, but by the operation of the laws of association and
dissociation. Some we seem unable voluntarily to recall, yet they may
appear when least we are expecting them. It is these last to which we
have referred as lost in subconscious forgetfulness. As a matter of
fact, _none_ are ever actually _lost_.

[Sidenote: _Making Experience Count_]

All the wealth of your past experience is still yours--a concrete part
of your personality. All that is required to make it available for your
present use is a sufficient concentration of your attention, _a
concentration of attention that shall dwell persistently and exclusively
upon those associations that bear upon the fact desired_.

The tendency of the mind toward dissociation, a function limiting the
indiscriminate recall of associated "groups," is also manifested in all
of us in the transfer to unconsciousness of many _muscular activities_.

[Sidenote: _How Habits Are Formed_]

As infants we learn to walk only by giving to every movement of the
limbs the most deliberate conscious attention. Yet, in time, the
complicated co-operation of muscular movements involved in walking
becomes involuntary and unconscious, so that we are no longer even aware
of them.

It is the same with reading, writing, playing upon musical instruments,
the manipulation of all sorts of mechanical devices, the thousand and
one other muscular activities that become what we call _habitual_.

The moment one tries to make these habitual activities again dependent
on the conscious will he encounters difficulties.

"The centipede was happy quite,
Until the toad, for fun,
Said, 'Pray which leg goes after which?'
This stirred his mind to such a pitch,
He lay distracted in a ditch,
Considering _how_ to run."

_All these habitual activities are started as acts of painstaking care
and conscious attention. All ultimately become unconscious._ They may,
however, be started or stopped at will. They are, therefore, still
related to the conscious mind. They occupy a semi-automatic middle
ground between conscious and subconscious activities.

THE FALLACY OF MOST MEMORY SYSTEMS

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CHAPTER VI

THE FALLACY OF MOST MEMORY SYSTEMS

[Sidenote