Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1914-09-25

pie after they get to be twenty-five or
thirty years of age, except in going
farther in the way they have started;
but it is great comfort to think that,
when one is young, it is almost as easy
to acquire good habit as bad one,
and that it is possible to be hardened
in goodness as well as in evil.
Take good care of the first twenty
years of your life, and you may hope
that the last twenty will take good
care of you.
How unfortunate that the science Of
habit-forming is not more generally
known by parents and taught in our
schools. colleges and universities. 1t
is q science, compared with which
other departments of education sink
into insignificance
Mans life work is a masterpiece or
botch, according az each little habit
has been perfectly or carelessly
formed.
1t is said that If you invite one OF
the devils children to your home the
whole family will follow. So one bad
habit seems to have a relationship
with all the others. For instance, the
one habit Of negligence, slovenliness,
makes it easier to form others equally
bad, until the entire character is honey
combed by the invasion of a family of
bad habits.
A man is often shocked when he
suddenly discovers that he is consid-
cred liar. He never dreamed OF
forming such a habit; but the little
Misrepresentation to gain some tenn
porary end had, before he was aware
of it, made a beaten track in the nerve
and brain tissue, until lying has be-
come almost a physical necessity. He
thinks he can easily overcome this
habit, but he will not. He Is bound to
his habit with cords of steel; and only
by painful, watchful and careful repeti-
ton of the exact truth, with special
effort Of the will power at each act,
can he form a counter trunk line in
the nerve and brain tissue.
Society is often shocked by the Grim
inal act of a man who has always been
considered upright and true. But II
they could examine the habit map in
his nervous mechanism and brain,
they would find the beginnings OF a
path leading directly to his deed, In
| the tiny repetitions of what he regard
ed as trivial acts ALI expert and tech
nical education is built upon the theory
| that these trunk lines of habit become
more and more sensitive to their ac-
customed stimuli, and respond more
and more readily.
We are apt to overlook the physical
basis of habit. Every repetition OF an
act makes us more likely to perform
that act, and discovers in our wonder
full mechanism tendency to perpetual
repetition, whose facility increases in
exact proportion to the repetition
Finally the original act becomes vol
untary from a natural reaction.
All through our lives the brain is
constantly educating different parts OF
the body to form habits which will
work automatically from reflex action,
and thus is delegated to the nervous
system a large part of life's duties.
| This is natures wonderful economy to
release the brain from the drudgery OF
individual acts, and leave it free to
command all it's forces for higher serv-
| ice.
Men carelessly or playfully get into
habits of speech or act which become
so natural that they speak or act as
they do not intend, to their discom-
| future.
| Beware of small sins" and white
lies"