s it a selfish love of ease which
intentionally withdraws itself from annoyances in order to remain
undisturbed. It is not manifested because of a desire to be out of these
vicissitudes. It is, while in them, to be not of them. It is the
composure which does not fret itself over what it cannot change. The
soul that has built for itself this stronghold of freedom within itself
may vividly experience joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure, and yet
serenely know that it is intrenched in walls which are inaccessible to
their attacks, because it knows that it is infinitely superior to all
that may chance or change. What is meant by active habit in distinction
from passive habit is found in our external activity, as skill,
facility, readiness of information, etc. It might be considered as the
equipping of our inner selves for active contest with the external
world; while passive habit is the fortifying of our inner selves against
the attack of the external world. The man who possesses habit in both
these forms impresses himself in many different ways on the outer world,
while at the same time, and all the time, he preserves intact his
personality from the constant assaults of the outer world. He handles
both spear and shield.

Sec. 33. All education, in whatever line, must work by forming habits
physical, mental, or moral. It might be said to consist in a conversion
of actions which are at first voluntary, by means of repetition, into
instructive actions which are performed, as we say, naturally--_i.e._,
without any conscious volition. We teach a child to walk, or he teaches
himself to walk by a constant repetition of the action of the will upon
the necessary muscles; and, when the thinking brain hands over the
mechanism to the trained spinal cord, the anxious, watchful look
disappears from the face, and the child talks or laughs as he runs: then
that part of his education is completed. Henceforth the attention that
had been necessary to manage the body in walking is freed for other
work. This is only an illustration, easily understood, of what takes
place in all education. Mental and moral acts, thoughts, and feelings in
the same way are, by repetition, converted into habits and become our
nature; and character, good or bad, is only the aggregate of our habits.
When we say a person has no character, we mean exactly this: that he has
no fixed habits. But, as the great end of human life is freedom, he must
be above even habit. He m