Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/459

 ROUTINE PROCESS. 445 when we do not meet these we yet encounter thoughts that involve fractions of them. Thus ordinary ideas have a fair opportunity of being recollected. In the case of the atoms we are dealing with, this is different. They lack universality and all relationship except the one that connects them with their stimuli. These " writing atoms," on account of their peculiar unfitness, never enter the normal stream of thought, and hence there is nothing to recall them. They lack intel- ligibility. They live entirely to themselves. . 4. Reduction of Effort. While advancing, the child discovers on frequent occasions that a less effort will accomplish his object as completely as a greater effort. He reduces- accordingly his strain, and energy is thus prevented from running to waste. 5. Appropriate Exercise. It is known that, within limits, appropriate physical exercise hardens and increases the size of the muscles, and that we are, as a consequence, able to carry out more with the same or a lesser effort. We are also aware that only continued effort, and not effortless exercise, leaves marked traces. As with strength, so with skill. Apart from what a perfected memory accomplishes, there is an additional aid given by neural development of some kind. We become, through appropriate exercise, more skilful than we should be otherwise. Nerve messages are conveyed with greater rapidity and unfailingness. ' For this reason, over and above what memory, oblivion, and reduced effort do to simplify an activity, circumscribed neural changes further lessen the necessary output of energy. 6. A Comparison. Let us once more compare the process of writing in the day of the child's early apprenticeship with the state of affairs when he has naturally done learning. To begin with, there was ceaseless bustle, now there is none. Through considerations now well known to the reader, the amount of attention needed has been enormously reduced. The different parts of the normal routine are remembered without strain ; difficulties which are likely to occur the child knows how to meet ; he is no more interested in the process itself ; conscious error is absent ; there are no problems, or almost none ; what is unessential has been forgotten ; less energy is expended ; and, lastly, the development of skill and muscle has further reduced the strain upon the attention. That is to say, effort has been toned down in four ways : (1) He remembers with ease ; (2) he has forgotten what is unnecessary ; (3) he has regulated the output according to the actual demand ; and (4) his developed nerves and muscles work more efficiently with less effort.