punctuation do not take care of themselves will hardly make a success of
writing. The mathematician whose number combinations, processes and formulæ
are not automatic in his mind can never hope to make progress in mathematical
thinking. The speaker who, while speaking, has to think of his gestures, his voice
or his enunciation will never sway audiences by his logic or his eloquence.
Habit Saves Effort and Fatigue.—We do most easily and with least fatigue
that which we are accustomed to do. It is the new act or the strange task that tires
us. The horse that is used to the farm wearies if put on the road, while the
roadster tires easily when hitched to the plow. The experienced penman works
all day at his desk without undue fatigue, while the man more accustomed to the
pick and the shovel than to the pen, is exhausted by a half hour's writing at a
letter. Those who follow a sedentary and inactive occupation do not tire by much
sitting, while children or others used to freedom and action may find it a
wearisome task merely to remain still for an hour or two.
Not only would the skill and speed demanded by modern industry be impossible
without the aid of habit, but without its help none could stand the fatigue and
strain. The new workman placed at a high-speed machine is ready to fall from
weariness at the end of his first day. But little by little he learns to omit the
unnecessary movements, the necessary movements become easier and more
automatic through habit, and he finds the work easier. We may conclude, then,
that not only do consciously directed movements show less skill than the same
movements made automatic by habit, but they also require more effort and
produce greater fatigue.
Habit Economizes Moral Effort.—To have to decide each time the question
comes up whether we will attend to this lecture or sermon or lesson; whether we
will persevere and go through this piece of disagreeable work which we have
begun; whether we will go to the trouble of being courteous and kind to this or
that poor or unlovely or dirty fellow-mortal; whether we will take this road
because it looks easy, or that one because we know it to be the one we ought to
take; whether we will be strictly fair and honest when we might just as well be
the opposite; whether we will resist the temptation which dares us; whether we
will do this duty, hard though it is, which confronts us—to have to decide each
of these questions every time it presents itself is to put too large a proportion of
our thought and energy on things which should take care of themselves. For all
these things should early become so nearly habitual that they can be settled with
the very minimum of expenditure of energy when they arise.