Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/457

 ROUTINE PKOCESS. 443 forgotten. (3) That thought which is acted on is connected with the action, and is more easily recalled than that which is not connected with it. (4) That which is recalled, as well as dwelt upon, is more easily remembered. (5) If any part of what is erroneous is remembered it tends to be immediately dismissed from the mind or suppressed, thus hastening the oblivion of error. (6) That in which we are not interested, or where the interest is negative, is not recalled. (7) Only that, other things being equal, on which attention has been centred frequently at short intervals, is remembered. (d) Suppose the child is about to write the letter " i ". He admonishes himself " Dot your i's ". So with the letter " t," he recalls " Cross your t's ". Similarly he says, " I must hold the pen thus ". In this fashion many of his actions are preceded by shorter or longer remarks. As he advances in his studies such preliminaries become obviously superfluous. The memory being perfected and the interest waning, these scaffoldings are removed in the manner indicated in the preceding sub-section. What happens with preliminaries happens with everything which is not essential to the process. One element after another lapses until nothing but what is essential to- the action (as we learnt it) survives. This elimination of what is non-essential is facilitated by another cause. We can only attend simultaneously to a lim- ited quantity of objects. If we are considerably interested in one thing we cannot spare much interest to other things at the same time. Thus there is a constant tendency, as in congested areas, for thoughts to drive each other out of exist- ence. We wish to write, and we want also to think of the subject-matter of the writing. The spare attention is needed. Hence a tendency to make no more ado about a task than is absolutely necessary. The lessening of the interest itself partly disarms opposition. When we are, therefore, concerned about something, any disturbing or unessential phrase, as " Cross your t's," is suppressed as soon as it rises or tends to rise. With these occasions multiplying, and our interest in the writing departing in the manner explained in the preceding portion of this paragraph everything un- essential is forgotten. As the miller removes the husk, so our ideas in the process of learning to write are gradually reduced and steadily divested of what is non-essential, until the pure flour alone remains. The occasion for this grinding down presents itself in practice through the need of, or desire for, attention to other matters, and, hence, of our apprentice efforts, we retain only what cannot be rejected. The process of reduction needs no deliberate determination. We require