Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/463

 ROUTINE PROCESS. 449 himself in not permitting different activities to interfere with each other. Hence the writing tends to proceed along its own lines. A certain stimulus is constantly connected with a certain reaction, and when the stimulus is present, the reaction follows. Just as at first the slightest attention to other matters disturbed the writing, so now, on the contrary, it is extremely hard to disorganise this activity. We are so used, while writing, to ignore the general stream of thought, i.e., not to allow the least interference with routine, that even thinking at the proper time of the desired change is sometimes not adequate. Usually we check ourselves when we think checking desir- able. But frequently we do not remember our resolutions at the right moment. This has an additional cause besides the one we have mentioned. The idea of the correction is not so firmly fixed nor so ready to pass into action as the fault we wish to remove. A slight stimulus would, therefore, recall the latter and not the former. Such is the normal reason why we often remember the correction after the blunder has been made, and why we as frequently fail to recollect our resolutions. 10. The Place of Exercise. We will now determine the place of exercise, as apart from other causes, in the organi- sation of the process of writing. (a) I have for many years been writing. I shall presum- ably write for some years longer, say twenty years. I shall, therefore, have an additional twenty years of exercise. Will my handwriting then be better, and shall I then be writing more rapidly, supposing mine be a normal case ? Hardly. The probabilities are that twenty years of added exercise will make no difference worth speaking of, nor would fifty years' exercise even, setting aside the influence of old age. Exercise has no absolute value. A statement to the effect that " im- provement in the quality and the speed of writing is in direct proportion to exercise," would be incorrect, as is also the milder form that " exercise strengthens faculty ". (6) In the elimination of what is erroneous and non- essential time rather than exercise is a favouring factor. While the former offers opportunities for the detection of improvements and mistakes, thus hastening the evolution of organised trends, the latter remains neutral as regards these changes. (c) Memory is slightly strengthened, and development, to an inconsiderable extent, assisted by means of exercise. (d) Only effort, persistent in its nature, causes sensible improvement in body or in mind. When effort is not 29