Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1820-04-25
THE FORCE OF HABIT.
Ill habits gather by unseen degrees;
As brooks run rivers, rivers run to seas.

~ Dryden.
There is not common saying which
has better turn of sense in it, than
what we often hear in the mouth of the
vulgar, that custom is Second nature.
1t is indeed able to form the man anew,
and give him inclinations andrcapacities
altogether different from those he was
born with. DR.. Plot, in his history OF
Staffordshire, tells us of an Idiot, that
CHANGED to live within the sound of a
clock, and always amused himself with
counting the hour of the day, whenever
the clock struck; the clock being spoil
ed by some accident, the Idiot continu-
ed to strike and count the hour without
the help of it, in the same manner he
had done when it was entire. Though
dare not youch for the truth of this
story, it is certain that custom has a
mechanical effect upon the body, at the
same time it has very extraordinary in
huence upon the mind. %' ''-
| Shall in this paper consider one very
remarkable effect which custom has up
on human nature; and which, if rightly
observed, may lead us into very useful
rules Of life. What l shall here take
notice fin custom, is its wonderful ef-
hcacy in making every thing pleasant to
us. A person who is addicted to play
or gaming, though he took but little de-
light in it at first, by degrees contracts SO
strong an inclination towards it, that it
seems the only end Of his being. The
love of g retired or busy life will grow
upon man insensibly, as he is con-
versant in the one or the other, till he is
utterly unqualified for relishing that to
which lie had for some time been dis
used ; Maya man may smoke, drink,
or take snuff, till he is unable to pass
away his time without it; not to mention
how our delight in any particular study,
art, or science, rises and improves in
proportion to the application which we
bestow upon it. Thus, what was at first
an exercise, becomes at length an enter
tainment. Ouremploymen,s are chang
ed into our diversions. ~ The mind
grows fond of those actions she is &C
customed to, and is drawn with reluctan-
cy from the paths in which she had been
used to walk. ''- -~ - ''' '---
Not only such actions as were at first
indifferent to US, but even such as were
painful, will, by custom and practice, be-
come pleasant. Sir Francis Bacon OBJ
serves, in his Natural Philosophy, that
our taste is never pleased better than
with those things which at first created
a disgust in it. He gives particular
instances of Claret Coffee, and other
liquors, which the palate seldom APP
proves upon the first taste; but when it
has once got relish Of them, generally
retains it for life. The mind is consti-
tuted after the same manner, aud after
having habituated herself to any particu!
lar exercise or employment, not only
loses her first aversion towards it, but
conceives certain fondness and atfec-
ton for it, l have heard one of the
great geniuses this age has produced,
who had been trained up in all the polite
studies of antiquity, assure me, on his
being obliged to Search into several rolls
of records, that Notwithstanding such an
employmeiit was at first very dry and
irksome to him, he st last took an in
credible pleasure in it, and preferred it
even to the f0ading Of Virgil or Cicero.
The reader will here observe that have
not here considered custom as it makes
things easy, but as it renders them de-
llghttul; and though others have often
made the same reflection, it is possible
they may not, have drawn those uses
from it, with which intend to fill the
remainder part of this paper.
-" five consider attentively this property
of human nature, it may instruct us in
very fine moralities. -"
+. In the first place., would have no
man discouraged with that kind of life,
or series of action, in which the choice
of others, or his own necessities may
have engaged him. =, 1t may, pehaps, be
very disagreeable to him at first; but
use and application will certainly render
it not only less painful, but pleasing and
satisfactory. - = 'H'''
In the second place, I would recon-
mend to every one that admirably pre-
cept which Pythagoras is said to, have
given to his disciples, and which that phi
Flosopher must have drawn from the OBJ
serya:ion l have enlarged Upon: Pitch
upon that course of life which is the most
excellent, and custom will render it the
most delightful Men whose circum-
Stances will permit them to choose their
own way Of life, are inexcusabie if they
do not pursue that which their judgment
tells them is the most, laudable. The