ting the nervous tissue in the human
organism, any act, whether instinctive, voluntary, or accidental, if
once performed, has a tendency to repeat itself under like
circumstances, or to become habitual. The child, for example, when
placed amid social surroundings, by merely yielding to his general
tendencies of imitation, sympathy, etc., will form many valuable modes
of habitual reaction connected with eating, dressing, talking,
controlling the body, the use of household implements, etc. For this
reason the early instinctive and impulsive acts of the child gradually
develop into definite modes of action, more suited to meet the
particular conditions of his surroundings.

=Habit and Education.=--Furthermore, the formation of these habitual
modes of reaction being largely conditioned by outside influences, it is
possible to control the process of their formation. For this reason, the
educator is able to modify the child's natural reactions, and develop in
their stead more valuable habits. No small part of the work of formal
education, therefore, must consist in adding to the social efficiency of
the child by endowing him with habits making for neatness, regularity,
accuracy, obedience, etc. A detailed study of habit in its relation to
education will be made in Chapter XXII.

CONSCIOUS REACTION

=An Example.=--The third and highest form of human reaction is known as
ideal, or conscious, reaction. In this form of reaction the mind,
through its present ideas, reacts upon some situation or difficulty in
such a way as to adjust itself satisfactorily to the problem with which
it is faced. As an example of such a conscious reaction, or adjustment,
may be taken the case of a young lad who was noticed standing over a
stationary iron grating through which he had dropped a small coin. A few
moments later the lad was seen of his own accord to take up a rod lying
near, smear the end with tar and grease from the wheel of a near by
wagon, insert the rod through the grating, and thus recover his lost
coin. An analysis of the mental movements involved previously to the
actual recovery of the coin will illustrate in general the nature of a
conscious reaction, or adjustment.

=Factors Involved in Process.=--In such an experience the consciousness
of the lad is at the outset occupied with a definite problem, or felt
need, demanding adjustment--the recovering of the lost coin, which need
acts as a stimulus to the consciousness and gives