Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/473

 EOUTINE PROCESS. 459 general consciousness and control is a moot point. A trend might, especially when the organism is predisposed to it, require very little effort in the acquiring. The apparently mechanical opening and closing of the eyelids, for instance, resembles an activity such as writing. In simple routine the stimulus may be so faint that though it be recognised sufficiently to be acted upon, yet it is too faint for full per- ception. Moving the eyelids either consciously or uncon- sciously yields indistinguishable results. This we should expect. The process is so elementary that deliberation or absence of deliberation makes no appreciable difference. Opening and shutting my eyelids deliberately as I am writing, I cannot discover anything in the action that would differenti- ate it from a normal trend. No perceptible feeling of effort is traceable. There is only the sensation which accompanies the movement. There is present probably on the mental side, under average circumstances, a feeling of fatigue which is relieved by shutting the eyes. This feeling is very faint ; but ordinary organic reactions have often no more distinct feelings- accompanying them. In the case of moving the eyelids the act, there is every reason to believe, is initiated at birth, currents of energy being easily discharged in that direction. How far respiration and other similar processes may be classed as routine, the reader must decide for himself. Prob- ably no distinct line can be drawn. The mere absence of perceptible effort, even the absence of an observable evolution in the action, apply to many processes which would not be looked upon as inherited. Every trend, by the very fact of its existence, must be considered as implying at least a modicum of predisposition. Hence the difficulty of drawing a line of demarcation. If routine actions tend, in one direction, to merge into bodily functions, they tend to merge into deliberateness in another. What indeed is to divide these classes ? As we reflect we become convinced that a vast number of actions are repeated, that the majority of our activities resemble each other, that the various new tasks we perform are new but to an insignifi- cant degree, and that certain principles elaborated by experience lie at the foundation of activity as a whole. It would be safe to state- that the overwhelming mass of what is new is more or less routine in character. Again, not all routine processes require little effort. So great are the variations in this respect that while some activities scarcely make a call on our intelligence, our attention, or our energy, others exclude nearly all unrelated effort and are most fatiguing. Repetition of a process is no trustworthy guide as to the-