h a pencil and tablet. It is the duty of this fairy to
put down every deed of the child, both good and evil, in an indelible
record which will one day rise as a witness against him. So it is in
very truth with our brains. The wrong act may have been performed in
secret, no living being may ever know that we performed it, and a
merciful Providence may forgive it; but the inexorable monitor of our
deeds was all the time beside us writing the record, and the history of
that act is inscribed forever in the tissues of our brain. It may be
repented of bitterly in sackcloth and ashes and be discontinued, but its
effects can never be quite effaced; they will remain with us a handicap
till our dying day, and in some critical moment in a great emergency we
shall be in danger of defeat from that long past and forgotten act.

WE MUST FORM HABITS.--We _must_, then, form habits. It is not at all in
our power to say whether we will form habits or not; for, once started,
they go on forming themselves by day and night, steadily and
relentlessly. Habit is, therefore, one of the great factors to be
reckoned with in our lives, and the question becomes not, Shall we form
habits? but _What habits we shall form._ And we have the determining of
this question largely in our own power, for habits do not just happen,
nor do they come to us ready made. We ourselves make them from day to
day through the acts we perform, and in so far as we have control over
our acts, in that far we can determine our habits.

2. THE PLACE OF HABIT IN THE ECONOMY OF OUR LIVES

Habit is one of nature's methods of economizing time and effort, while
at the same time securing greater skill and efficiency. This is easily
seen when it is remembered that habit tends towards _automatic_ action;
that is, towards action governed by the lower nerve centers and taking
care of itself, so to speak, without the interference of consciousness.
Everyone has observed how much easier in the performance and more
skillful in its execution is the act, be it playing a piano, painting a
picture, or driving a nail, when the movements involved have ceased to
be consciously directed and become automatic.

HABIT INCREASES SKILL AND EFFICIENCY.--Practically all increase in
skill, whether physical or mental, depends on our ability to form
habits. Habit holds fast to the skill already attained while practice or
intelligence makes ready for the next step in advance. Could we not form
habits we