Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/461

 ROUTINE PROCESS. 447 trials he might be successful with three pebbles, or attend to the two pebbles and be thinking of other matters. Thus it happens that while we are engaged in writing we are usually engaged in other directions also. When we are copying we may be listening to a conversation, if, perchance, our superfluous attention is not bent on something more serious. Gradually we have accommodated ourselves to write while following other lines of thought. On the one hand, interest urged us to disengage part of the attention ; on the other, the presence of liberated attention energy sought an outlet. 8. Does an Organic Trend ever Become Automatic ? (a) Both the process of simplification and the acquired power of pursuing our thoughts independently may have suggested that writing comes to be in time a mechanical act where attention is superfluous. On the other hand, we saw that there is no fundamental change, only a simplification. A further proof of this, if needed, is easily forthcoming. We know, roughly speaking, that the attention energy is at different times equal in amount, assuming the normal waking state. If, consequently, we were absorbed in thought, we should expect that writing would proceed with difficulty and finally cease. This actually takes place. We cannot be completely absorbed in anything while writing, for divided attention is only possible when the attention energy is divided. (6) A purely mechanical act would be one in which no sensations were present. This is not so with any habit, however confirmed. In learning we experienced sensations to begin with. These sensations grew gradually fainter. They are now so dim that they are hardly perceptible. But though not vivid they serve their purpose. They are still of the same use as before. Their unobtrusiveness only indicates a reduction in the energy employed ; in other words, it records that less energy is wasted. These sensations represent physical activity, and only when that ceases do these sensations disappear. They are the index of work done. It will be found true that sensations are never missed from an activity which at any time was followed by them. It is also probable that wherever the influence of the unimpaired cerebro-spinal system reaches, there we have sensations accompanying physical activity. Perhaps that they are not essential, as is shown in the case of tickling the foot of a man whose spinal cord is injured above the point whence the nerves of the lower extremities emerge ; for this man with- draws his foot, though he experiences nothing. But where the activity is central, or connected by nerves with the higher