t this case.
Probably the poor ass did not starve--unless he richly deserved his
name--but he may conceivably have ended the very uncomfortable state
of vacillation by running away altogether, as a human being, who is
really more subject to vacillation than any other creature, is
sometimes so much disturbed at having to decide between two
invitations for the same day as to decline both, and go fishing.
Vacillation is certainly a very unpleasant state of mind. We want
action, or else we want peace, but vacillation gives us neither. In
spite of its irksomeness, we seem sometimes almost powerless to end
it, because as soon as we have about decided on the one alternative,
what we shall miss by not choosing the other comes vividly to mind,
and swings the pendulum its way.

{531}

However it comes about that a decision is reached, it usually is
reached, and the curious fact then is that it usually sticks. A
student may vacillate long between the apparently equal attractions of
two colleges, but when he finally decides on one, the advantages of
the other lose their hold on him. Now he is all for one and not at all
for the other. Having identified himself with one college, he has
completely altered the balance of attractions, his self-assertion now
going wholly on the side of the chosen college, and even leading him
to pick flaws in the other as if to reinforce his decision. In other
words, he "rationalizes", justifies, and fortifies his decision, once
he has reached it. Some people, indeed, are abnormally subject to
vacillation and seem never to accept their own decisions as final, but
normally there are strong influences tending to maintain a decision,
once it is made: the unpleasantness of the state of vacillation and
relief at having escaped from it; the satisfaction of having a
definite course of action; and self-assertion, because we have
decided, and now this course of action is _ours_. During vacillation,
neither of the alternatives was identified with ourselves, but now we
have decided and are not going to be so weak as to change. X is our
college now and anything you say against it you say against us. Thus
the person who has decided defends himself energetically against
reopening the question.

The state of indecision and the state of decision seem thus fairly
well understood, but the process of passing from the one to the other
is often obscure. It differs from one case to another. In one case we
find the ration