he new response is apt to be unsatisfying to the one
who makes it, while habit is comfortable and a source of satisfaction.

To break a habit is most uncomfortable. Nature--at least that "second
nature" which is habit--calls aloud for the customary performance.
Strenuous effort is required to get out of the rut, and the slipping
back into the rut which is almost sure to occur in moments of
inadvertence is humiliating. Result--usually the habit sticks.

But if the habit simply must be broken? Breaking a habit is forming a
counter-habit, and the more positive the counter-habit the better for
us. This counter-habit must not be left to form itself, but must be
practised diligently. Strong motivation is necessary, no half-hearted
acquiescence in somebody else's injunction to get rid of the habit. We
must adopt the counter-habit as ours, and work for a high standard of
skill in it. For example, if we come to realize that we have a bad
habit of grouchiness with our best friends, it is of little use merely
to attempt to deaden this habit; we need to aim at being a positive
addition to the company whenever we are present, and to practise the
art of being good company, checking up our efforts to be sure we are
hitting {329} the right vein, and persisting in our self-training till
we become real artists. It takes some determination for a grouchy
individual to make such a revolution in his conduct; his
self-assertion resists violently, for the grouchiness is part and
parcel of himself and he hates to be anything but himself. He must
conceive a new and inspiring ideal of himself, and start climbing up
the practice curve towards the new ideal.

{330}

EXERCISES

1. Outline the chapter.

2. Which of the acts performed in eating breakfast are instinctive,
which are matters of habit, and which are partly the one and partly
the other?

3. Compare your mental attitude in approaching an unfamiliar and
a familiar task.

4. How does the performance of the expert in swimming or dancing, etc.,
differ from the performance of the beginner? Analyze out the points
of superiority.

5. Show that the element of trial and error is present in (a) the
child's learning to pronounce a word, and (b) learning "how to
take" a person so as to get on well with him.

6. Why is it that our handwriting, though exercised so much, is apt
to grow worse rather than better, while on the contrary our
spelling is apt to improve?