Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/471

 ROUTINE PROCESS. 457 difficulties the former has overcome in other connexions, and thus many perplexities do not exist for him. The developed mode of writing can, therefore, only in an arbitrary sense be said to have had a beginning. The mass of what is organic was so before the child learnt writing, and remains organic alongside of the special capacity we are considering. We cannot hence consistently speak of com- mencing to learn to write. Or, rather, when we express ourselves thus, we must be clear that we are utilising the components of other organic trends, and that we are con- templating a compound of new and old tasks. In the new activity we have a specialisation of old activities. 15. Each Organic Trend forms a Basis for others of its Kind. In learning to write we start with organised reactions. Naturally, when we have learnt to write, this new trend (the .strength, skill, and judgment acquired) forms a partial basis for other trends. Thus a sign painter or lithographer profits from knowing how to write ; the position we place ourselves into when writing may be advantageous for many purposes ; the way we hold the pen may assist us in drawing ; and writing itself might possibly be considered a department of drawing. We conclude, then, that the mechanism of writing is not self-contained, since it presupposes organic reaction, and serves as a basis, or forms a department of, other such processes. 16. What is an Organic Trend ? We have analysed at full length a particular example. In the last two sections we saw that an organic trend is not self-contained (if we allow that writing is a fair type of it). How then is a routine process circumscribed ? What are its distinguishing marks ? Is it a bundle of such processes ? Or is there no such thing ? Or is the idea of a trend a mere generalisation of convenience ? A man wishes to know the time. He pulls out his watch and looks. The hand points to two o'clock, while the hour must be about eight. Then he recollects that his watch has stopped for some days. The compass of this trend is very limited. Its development must have been correspondingly simple. As there is but one complex movement, and that one common to other movements, he has had next to nothing to learn. Even the fact that he takes hold of the watch by the ring, is matched by similar experiences. What is new is that he accustoms himself, in the manner explained in section 8, to look at his watch without allowing the action to interfere with his general current of thought. Even this is overstating the case. The element alluded to can hardly be called a new one. The whole process is primitive. We are constantly