HABIT
HABIT, by William James, in his The Principles of Psychology,1890. Reprinted in Rudolph W.Chamberlain's Progressive Readings in Prose, New York, Doubleday, Page and Company, 1923, pp. 22-26.
“Habit a second nature! Habit is ten times nature,” the Duke of Wellington is said to have exclaimed; and the degree to which this is true no one can probably appreciate as well as one who is a veteran soldier himself. The daily drill and the years of discipline end by fashioning a man completely over again, as to most of the possibilities of his conduct.
“There is a story, which is credible enough, though it may not be true, of a practical joker, who, seeing a discharged veteran carrying home his dinner, suddenly called out,‘Attention! ' whereupon the man instantly brought his hands down, and lost his mutton and potatoes in the gutter. The drill had been thorough, and its effects had become embodied in the man's nervous structure.”
Riderless cavalry-horses, at many a battle, have been seen to come together and go through their customary evolutions at the sound of the bugle call. Most trained domestic animals, dogs and oxen, and omnibus- and car-horses, seem to be machines almost pure and simple, undoubtingly, unhesitatingly doing from minute to minute the duties they have been taught, and giving no sign that the possibility of an alternative ever suggests itself to their mind. Men grown old in prison have asked to be readmitted after being once set free. In a railroad accident to a traveling menagerie in the United States some time in 1884, a tiger, whose cage had broken open, is said to have emerged, but presently crept back again, as if too much bewildered by his new responsibilities, so that he was without difficulty secured.
Habit is thu s the enormous flywheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. It alone is what keeps us all within the bounds of ordinance, and saves the children of fortune from the envious uprisings of the poor. It alone prevents the hardest and most repulsive walks of life from being deserted by those brought up to tread therein. It keeps the fisherman and the deck hand at sea through the winter; it holds the miner in his darkness, and nails the countryman to his log cabin and his lonely farm through all the months of snow; it protects us from invasion by the natives of the desert and the frozen zone. It dooms us all to fight out the battle of life upon the lines of our nurture or our early choice, and to make the best of a pursuit that disagrees, because there is no other for which we are fitted, and it is too late to begin again. It keeps different social strata from mixing. Already at the age of twenty-five you see the professional mannerism settling down on the young commercial traveler, on the young doctor, on the young minister, on the young counselor at law. You see the little lines of cleavage running through the character, the tricks of thought, the prejudices, the ways of the “shop,” in a word, from which the man can by and by no more escape than his coat sleeve can suddenly fall into a new set of folds. On the whole, it is best he should not escape. It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.
If the period between twenty and thirty is the critical one in the formation of intellectual and professional habits, the period below twenty is more important still for the fixing of personal habits, properly so called, such as vocalization and pronunciation, gesture, motion, and address. Hardly ever is a language learned after twenty spoken without a foreign accent; hardly ever can a youth transferred to the society of his betters unlearn the nasality and other vices of speech bred in him by the associations of his growing years. Hardly ever, indeed, no matter how much money there be in his pocket, can he even learn to dress like a gentleman-born. The merchants offer their wares as eagerly to him as to the veriest “swell,” but he simply cannot buy the right things. An invisible law, as strong as gravitation, keeps him within his orbit, arrayed this year as he was the last; and how his better-bred acquaintances contrive to get the things they wear will be for him a mystery till his dying day.
The great thing, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy. It is to fund and capitalize our acquisitions, and live at ease upon the interest of the fund.For this we must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible , as many useful actions as we can, and guard against the growing into ways that are likely to be disadvantageous to us, as we should guard against the plague. The more of the details of our daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the more our higher powers of mind will be set free for their own proper work. There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision, and for whom the li ghting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the time of rising and going to bed every day, and the beginning of every bit of work, are subjects of express volitional deliberation. Full half the time of such a man goes to the deciding, or regretting, of matters which ought to be so ingrained in him as practically not to exist for his consciousness at all. If there be such daily duties not yet ingrained in any one of my readers, let him begin this very hour to set the matter right.
In Professor Bain's chapter on “The Moral Habits” there are some admirable practical remarks laid down. Two great maxims emerge from his treatment. The first is that in the acquisition of a new habit, or the leaving off of an old one, we must take care to launch ourselves with as strong and decided an initiative as possible. Accumulate all the possible circumstances which shall reënforce the right motives; put yourself assiduously in conditions that encourage the new way; make engagements incompatible with the old; take a public pledge, if the case allows; in short, envelop your resolution with every aid you know. This will give your new beginning such a momentum that the temptation to break down will not occur as soon as it otherwise might; and every day during which a breakdown is postponed adds to the chances of its not occurring at all.
The second maxim is:Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life. Each lapse is like the letting fall of a ball of string which one is carefully winding up; a single slip undoes more than a great many turns will wind again. Continuity of training is the great means of making the nervous system act infallibly right. As Professor Bain says:
“The peculiarity of the moral habits, contradistinguishing them from the intellectual acquisitions, is the presence of two hostile powers, one to be gradually raised into the ascendant over the other. It is necessary, above all things, in such a situation, never to lose a battle. Every gain on the wrong side undoes the effect of many conquests on the right. The essential precaution, therefore, is so to regulate the two opposing powers that the one may have a series of uninterrupted successes, until repetition has fortifie d it to such a degree as to enable it to cope with the opposition, under any circumstances. This is the theoretically best career of mental progress.”
The need of securing success at the outset is imperative. Failure at first is apt to dampen the energy of all future attempts, whereas past experience of success nerves one to future vigor. Goethe says to a man who consulted him about an enterprise but mistrusted his own powers: “Ach! you need only blow on your hands!” And the remark illustrates the effect on Goethe's spirits of his own habitually successful career. Professor Baumann, from whom I borrow the anecdote, says that the collapse of barbarian nations when Europeans came among them is due to their despair of ever succeeding as the newcomers do in the larger tasks of life. Old ways are broken and new ones not formed.
The question of “tapering-off,” in abandoning such habits as drink and opium-indulgence, comes in here, and is a question about which experts differ within certain limits, and in regard to what may be best for an individual case. In the main, however, all expert opinion would agree that abrupt acquisition of the new habit is the best way,if there be a real possibility of carrying it out. We must be careful not to give the will so stiff a task as to insure its defeat at the very outset;but,provided one can stand it, a sharp period of suffering and then a free time, is the best thing to aim at, whether in giving up a habit like that of opium, or in simply changing one's hours of rising or of work. It is surprising how soon a desire will die of inanition if it be never fed.
“One must first learn, unmoved, looking neither to the right nor left, to walk firmly on the straight and narrow path, before one can begin ‘to make oneself over again.' He who every day makes a fresh resolve is like one who, arriving at the edge of the ditch he is to leap, forever stops and returns for a fresh run. Without unbroken advance there is no such thing as accumulation of the ethical forces possible, and to make this possible, and to exercise us and habituate us in it, is the sovereign blessing of regular work.”
A third maxim may be added to the preceding pair:Seize the very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution you make, and on every emotional prompting you may experience in the direction of the habits you aspire to gain. It is not the moment of their forming, but in the moment of their producing motor effects, that resolves and aspirations communicate the new “set” to the brain. As the author last quoted remarks:
“The actual presence of the practical opportunity alone furnishes the fulcrum upon which the lever can rest, by means of which the moral will may multiply its strength, and raise itself aloft. He who has no solid ground to press against will never get beyond the stage of empty gesture-making.”
No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one's sentiments may be, if one have not taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act, one's character may remain entirely unaffected for the better. With mere good intentions, hell is proverbially paved. And this is an obvious consequence of the principles we have laid down. A “character,” as J. S. Mill says, “is a completely fashioned will”; and a will, in the sense in which he means it, is an aggregate of tendencies to act in a firm and prompt and definite way upon all the principal emergencies of life. A tendency to act only becomes effectively ingrained in us in proportion to the uninterrupted frequency with which the actions actually occur, and the brain “grows” to their use. Every time a resolve or a fine glow of feeling evaporates without bearing practical fruit is worse than a chance lost;it works so as positively to hinder future resolutions and emotions from taking the normal path of discharge. There is no more contemptible type of human character than that of the nerveless sentimentalist and dreamer, who spends his life in a weltering sea of sensibility and emotion, but who never does a manly concrete deed. Rousseau, inflaming all the mothers of France, by his eloquence, to follow Nature and nurse their babies themselves, while he sends his own children to the foundling hospital, is the classical example of what I mean. But every one of us in his measure, whenever, after glowing for an abstractly formulated Good, he practically ignores some actual case, among the squalid “other particulars” of which that same Good lurks disguised, treads straight on Rousseau's path. All Goods are disguised by the vulgarity of their concomitants, in this work-a-day world; but woe to him who can only recognize them when he thinks them in their pure and abstract form! The habit of excessive novel reading and theater going will produce true monsters in this line. The weeping of a Russian lady over the fictitious personages in the play, while her coachman is freezing to death on his seat outside, is the sort of thing that everywhere happens on a less glaring scale. Even the habit of excessive indulgence in music for those who are neither performers themselves nor musically gifted enough to take it in a purely intellectual way, has probably a relaxing effect upon the character. One becomes filled with emotions which habitually pass without prompting to any deed, and so the inertly sentimental condition is kept up. The remedy would be, never to suffer oneself to have an emotion at a concert, without expressing it afterward in some active way. Let the expression be the least thing in the world—speaking genially to one's aunt or giving up one's seat in a horse car, if nothing more heroic offers—but let it not fail to take place.
These latter cases make us aware that it is not simply particular lines of discharge, but also general forms of discharge, that seem to be grooved out by habit in the brain. Just as, if we let our emotions evaporate, they get into a way of evaporating; so there is reason to suppose that if we often flinch from making an effort, before we know it the effort-making capacity will be gone; and that, if we suffer the wandering of our attention, presently it will wander all the time. Attention and effort are, as we shall see later, but two names for the same psychic fact. To what brain processes they correspond we do not know. The strongest reason for believing that they do depend on brain processes at all, and are not pure acts of the spirit, is just this fact, that they seem in some degree subject to the law of habit, which is a material law. As a final practical maxim, relative to these habits of the will, we may, then, offer something like this:Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day. That is, be systematically ascetic or heroic in little unnecessary points, do every day or two something for no other reason than that you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test. Asceticism of this sort is like the insurance which a man pays on his house and goods. The tax does him no good at the time, and possibly may never bring him a return. But if the fire does come, his having paid it will be his salvation from ruin. So with the man who has daily inured himself to habits of concentrated attention, energetic volition, and self-denial in unnecessary things. He will stand like a tower when everything rocks around him, and when his softer fellow mortals are winnowed like chaff in the blast.
The physiological study of mental conditions is thus the most powerful ally of hortatory ethics. The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioning our characters in the wrong way. Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state. We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never so little scar. The drunken Rip Van Winkle, in Jefferson's play, excuses himself for every fresh dereliction by saying, “I won't count this time!” Well! he may not count it, and a kind Heaven may not count it; but it is being counted none the less. Down among his nerve cells and fibers the molecules are counting it, registering and storing it up to be used against him when the next temptation comes. Nothing we ever do is, in strict scientific literalness, wiped out. Of course, this has its good side as well as its bad one. As we become permanent drunkards by so many separate drinks, so we become saints in the moral, and authorities and experts in the practical and scientific spheres, by so many separate acts and hours of work. Let no youth have any anxiety about the upshot of his education, whatever the line of it may be. If he keep faithfully busy each of the working day, he may safely leave the final result to itself. He can with perfect certainty count on waking up some fine morning, to find himself one of the competent ones of his generation, in whatever pursuit he may have singled out. Silently, between all the details of his business, the power of judging in all that class of matter will have built itself up within him as a possession that will never pass away. Young people should know this truth in advance. The ignorance of it has probably engendered more discouragement and faint-heartedness in youths embarking on arduous careers than all other causes put together.
Notes
second nature. Nature is one's natural endowment or essential character, as, natural impulse or action, instinct or native constitution, intrinsic or inborn nature. Hence, second nature means one's real nature, something that has become so much a part of the individual that he cannot escape from it.
Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley （1769-1852）, British general responsible for the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo.
“There is a story . . . , ”from Huxley's Elementary Lessons in Physiology, Lesson XII.
practical joker. A practical joke is a joke put into practice, the fun consisting in what is done rather than in what is said, especially a trick played on a person. He who practices such witticisms is called a practical joker.
gutter, a small channel at the side of a road or elsewhere to lead off surface water.
cavalry-horses, horses belonging to the cavalry or that branch of the army which serves on horseback.
customary evolutions, the evolutions that they have been accustomed to go through.
bugle call, a summons on a bugle, as to call soldiers to duty. The bugle is a brass or copper wind instrument curved and somewhat high-pitched.
omnibus- and car-horses, horses employed to draw such vehicles. The omnibus is a heavy four-wheeled public vehicle designed to carry a comparatively large number of people; a car is a vehicle adapted to the rails of a railroad.
menagerie, a collection of wild or foreign animals in cages or inclosures kept especially for exhibition, as with a circus.
flywheel, a heavy wheel for opposing and moderating by its inertia any fluctuation of speed in the machinery with which it involves.
ordinance, order.
walks, occupations.
deck hand, a common sailor.
nurture, bringing up; fostering care.
strata. A stratum is a body of sedimentary rock or earth of one kind formed by natural causes and consisting usually of a series of layers lying between beds of other kinds. Here, social strata refer to the different groups that make up a society.
mannerism, a recurrent trick of style or behavior.
cleavage, division, way in which a thing tends to split.
“shop, ” one's occupation or business as a topic of conversation, especially when introduced unseasonably.
set like plaster, grown hard, become fixed like plaster.
fixing, making or becoming rigid.
vocalization, act of vocalizing or forming into voice; giving intonation or resonance to.
nasality, in speaking, having the twang described as speaking through the nose.
veriest,the superlative of very;most very;most actual, veritable, real.
“swell, ” a slang expression to mean a stylish or ultrafashionable person.
orbit, social group within which he moves. An orbit is the path described by a heavenly body in its revolution around another body. Here, a man's social group within which he moves.
contrive, manage.
ally, one joined to another by alliance, treaty, or league.
automatic, acting of itself; having an inherent power of action or motion.
the effortless custody of automatism, habit.
nothing is habitual but indecision, having no habit except the habit of not being able to make up his mind on any decision.
express volitional deliberation, in which he must every time make up his mind definitely before he carries out the act.
ingrained, deeply rooted.
Professor Bain's chapter on “The Moral Habits.” Alexander Bain （1818-1903）, Scottish psychologist and educator. The quotation is from his The Study of Character,1861.
maxims, general truth drawn from science or experience; principle;rule of conduct.
his treatment, his book, his way of dealing with the subject.
launch ourselves, set ourselves going; start out.
initiative, first step, origination.
incompatible, inconsistent with; opposed in character to; discordant to.
a public pledge, make a promise in public, before others; swear not to do a thing in front of many others.
momentum, the force of motion acquired by a moving body as a result of the continuance of its motion by virtue of inertia; impetus.
breakdown, stoppage; collapse; failure of a thing.
undoes, annuls; unties or unfastens or loosens.
wind, coil around.
contradistinguishing, distinguishing by a contrast.
ascendant, higher position.
outset, start, beginning.
imperative, urgent, obligatory, necessary.
dampen, discourage; depress; chill.
nerves, gives strength, vigor, courage to; supplies one with physical or moral force.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von （1749-1832）, German author.
mistrusted, had no faith in his own powers.
Ach, ah, an exclamation, expressive of surprise, pity, complaint, entreaty, contempt, threatening, delight, triumph, etc., according to the manner of utterance. Here, it is used to express the ease with which the enterprise can be carried out.
anecdote, a particular or detached incident or fact of an interesting nature; a biographical incident or fragment.
“tapering-off, ” stopping gradually; ceasing little by little.
a sharp period, an abrupt, intense, period of suffering.
inanition, want of fullness; emptiness; exhaustion from lack of food;fasting.
“One must first learn . . . , ”from J. Bahnsen Beitrage zu Characterologie, Vol. I, p.209.
the straight and narrow path, the path which conforms to justice and rectitude, with special reference to some peril or misfortune.
“to make oneself over again, ” to reform, to change for the better.
resolve, resolution, determination.
for a fresh run. He must make the preliminary run again because he was timid and stopped before making the leap and therefore wasted the previous run.
habituate, make habitual, make into a habit.
motor effects, physical movements; consciousness of action.
fulcrum, the support, as a wedge-shaped piece or a hinge, about which a lever turns.
to press against, to stand on.
With mere good intentions, hell is proverbially paved. Possession of a determination to act in a certain way or to do a certain thing, yet never acting upon it, is but to prepare the way for misery, anguish, turmoil, or wickedness.
J. S. Mill, John Stuart （1806-1873）, English philosopher and political economist.
“grows, ” develops, becomes larger and fuller.
evaporates, disappears, does not come to fruit.
discharge, relief of load; unloading.
nerveless, destitute of strength or courage; without nerves; lacking vigor; powerless; weak; inert.
weltering sea of sensibility and emotion. A weltering sea is one which rises and falls tumultuously; rocks and tosses; hence, restless, boundless space or extent of one's feeling or consciousness.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques （1712-1778）, French philosopher and author. He advocated going back to nature; he proposed that parents should nurture their own children.
foundling hospital, an institution for infants found after their parents have deserted or exposed them.
“other particulars, ” other details, perhaps not so inviting.
concomitants, associates, companions.
inertly, sluggishly, slowly, weakly.
flinch, draw back; wince.
psychic, pertaining to the mind, mental as contrasted to the physical.
gratuitous, offered free; extra; not called for by the circumstances.
ascetic, rigid in self-denial and devotions.
winnowed, separated and driven off; blowing the chaff away from the seed.
chaff, the glumes or husks of grain and grasses separated from the seed by threshing and winnowing.
hortatory ethics, moral conduct or teaching which counsels, advises, or incites or encourages.
theology, the science of God or of religion.
Rip Van Winkle. Joseph Jefferson （1829-1905）, American actor, seeking an original play for himself, made a dramatization of Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle. He first played this role in London in 1865. This drama delighted American playgoers for two generations.
dereliction, failure in duty; a neglect or omission as if by wilful abandonment.
Questions
1. How is habit a conservative agent?
2. What period is most important for the fixing of personal habits?
3. How can we make our nervous system our ally?
4. What are the two great maxims quoted from Professor Bain?
5. What is the third maxim suggested?
6. Why is action necessary?
7. What final practical maxim is given?
8. What encouragement may youth find in a physiological study of mental conditions?
参考译文
【作品简介】
《习惯》一文选自威廉·詹姆斯1890年出版的作品《心理原则》。后收入鲁道夫·W．钱伯伦编写的《散文进阶读本》，纽约道布尔戴·佩奇出版公司1923年出版，22—26页。
“习惯乃第二天性！习惯是十倍的天性。”据说威灵顿公爵曾作此论断，此语的真切之处，唯老兵领悟最深。日复一日的严格操练，年复一年的纪律约束，影响了他们的大多数行为，造就了全新的人。
“有这样一则故事，未必真实，却也可信。有人搞恶作剧，看见一位退伍老兵拿着晚餐回家，突然大喊：‘立正！’那老兵闻声竟然立即垂臂而立，结果，手中的羊肉和土豆都掉进了地沟。由此可见，军营的训练多么彻底，其影响已经深入老兵的神经结构之中。”
在许多战役中，曾看到无人骑乘的战马集合起来，在战斗的号角声中继续进行日常演练的动作。多数经过驯化的动物，如狗、牛和驾车的马匹，简直就像机器一样，纯粹而简单，时时刻刻在完成人类教给它们的活计，既不置疑，也不犹豫，也没有迹象看出头脑中有什么其他想法。在监狱中渐渐老去的犯人，获释后竟请求重返狱中。1884年，美国一个行进中的野生动物兽笼遭遇了一场铁路交通事故，据说一只老虎从被撞开的虎笼中逃脱，但似乎是对新的责任感到恐惧，很快就返回笼中，因此把这只老虎重新关好不费吹灰之力。
因此，习惯是社会巨大的飞轮，也是社会最宝贵的守护力量。习惯，使我们服从法律的约束，使财富的宠儿免遭心存妒忌的贫民暴动的侵扰。习惯，使处境最为艰难、最令人嫌恶的社会阶层免于被那些原本要对其肆意践踏的人们抛弃。它使渔夫和水手在海上度过严冬；使矿工甘处黑暗之中，农夫固守在小木屋中和孤零零的农场上，度过冰天雪地的季节；它保护我们免遭沙漠和冰封地带土著的入侵。它使我们注定要凭借所接受的养育或者早年的选择开展生命的战役，尽力实现不分时宜的追求，因为除此之外，我们别无选择，而且重新来过已经为时太晚。它使不同的社会阶层彼此隔绝。到了二十五岁，在年轻的商旅人士、医生、牧师、律师身上，可以看到职业行为方式已经根深蒂固了。你会看到一道道印迹贯穿他们的性格、思路、偏见、行为方式，总而言之，这个年轻人渐渐地无法挣脱，就像衣袖上无法立即形成新的褶皱一样。总的来说，他最好还是不要挣脱。我们多数人到了三十岁，性格已经像石膏一样凝固定型，不会再软化松动了。对世界来说，这也是件好事。
如果说二十到三十岁之间是形成思维和专业习惯的关键阶段，那么二十岁以下对于所谓个人习惯的定型是更加重要的，比如声调、发音、手势、动作以及称呼方式。二十岁后习得的语言难免会带有外国口音；进入自己本不属于的上流社会的青年人，几乎无法丢弃成长过程中养成的鼻音或者其他不良语言习惯。甚至无论口袋里揣了多少金钱，他都学不会如何像一位天生的绅士那样穿衣打扮。尽管商人像对待社会精英一样热情地向他推销商品，但是他总是无法买到恰当的商品。像引力一样强大的无形法则，使他无法脱离自己的轨道，年复一年地穿着同样的衣装；而出身高贵的人们如何得到他们身上的衣服，这对他来说是一个谜，至死都无法解开。
所有教育的重要之处，就是使神经系统成为我们的朋友，而不是敌人。对我们习得的技能，它会提供支持与资助，并与其带来的收益安然共处。因此，我们必须尽早地使尽可能多的有益行为成为自动、习惯的活动，像防范瘟疫一样防止不利的做法形成固定模式。日常生活中越多的具体事务交给毫不费力的自动监管，我们思想的力量就会更多地得以释放，发挥其应有的作用。最可怜的人只有一种习惯：犹豫。无论是点燃一只雪茄，品尝一杯美酒，乃至每天的作息时间，开始每一件工作，都要经过深思熟虑。有些事本该习惯成自然，根本不应察觉到它们的存在，而这种人却把一半时间花在做决定或者后悔上。各位读者，如果您的日常工作还没有潜移默化地成为自己的一部分，就从此刻开始改正吧。
在《道德习惯》一章中，贝恩教授提出了令人钦佩的中肯的评论。他的解决方案阐明了两大准则。第一个准则是，在获取一个新习惯或者抛弃一个旧习惯时，我们必须尽可能果断而坚决地全力以赴。尽可能多创造有利于强化正确动机的情形；刻意把自己置身于鼓励新做法的条件之中；使自己的精力与旧做法互不相容；在条件允许的情况下采取公开承诺；总之，利用你所知道的一切手段来辅助你的决定。这将给你崭新的开端带来巨大动力，半途而废的诱惑不会那么快出现；打破习惯的日子推迟一天，这种诱惑再次出现的机会就减少一分。
第二条准则就是：新习惯没有在你的生命中根深蒂固之前，不要容许例外发生。每次松懈就像把手中正在仔细缠绕的线团松开；一次失误需要多倍的努力才能弥补。持续训练是唯一确保神经系统正确行动的重要方法。正如贝恩教授所说：
“与获取知识显著不同，道德习惯的特别之处是存在两种敌对的力量，若一种力量逐渐占上风，便会压倒另一种力量。在这种情况下，首先必须做到的就是一场战役也不要输掉。错误的一方一旦获胜，就会把正确一方多次取得的成果消耗殆尽。因此，必须慎重调整这两种敌对的力量，让正确一方不断取得一个又一个成功，直到多次重复使其得以巩固，以便无论在任何情况下，都能与敌对力量抗衡。理论上来说，这是思想进步的最佳历程。”
在起步阶段，必须确保成功。若开局失利，将会消弭未来努力的能量，反之，前期的成功将使人未来精力充沛。有人向歌德咨询一项事业，却怀疑自己的能力，歌德对他说：“嗨！你只要往手上吹口气就行了！”这句话说明了事业上习惯性的成功，对于歌德的情绪态度产生了深远的影响。我是从鲍曼教授那里听到这则轶事的，他说欧洲人到来的时候，野蛮民族便土崩瓦解了，这是因为他们悲观绝望，而新来的欧洲人却在面临生命中重要的任务时充满了求胜的信心。旧模式被打破了，而新模式还未建立起来。
戒除酗酒、吸毒之类的陋习时，“渐进式”方案带来了一些问题。对此，专家们存在一定分歧，也未就具体案例的最佳方案达成共识。但总体来说，所有专家都会同意，如果确有可能坚持下去，迅速养成一个新习惯是最佳方法。我们一定要注意，不要让意志面临一个一开始就注定会失败的艰巨任务。无论是戒除吸食鸦片的习惯，还是仅仅改变作息时间，如果能够经受考验，最佳的处理方法是先忍受一段痛苦时期，然后再经历一段自由时期。如果欲望不能得到满足，它很快就会因饥饿而消亡，这真是令人惊奇。
“在没有‘脱胎换骨’之前，必须首先学会心无旁骛，不要左顾右盼，在笔直而狭窄的小路上稳步前行。每天下一个新的决心，就如同每次跑到准备跨越的壕沟边缘时，都会停下脚步，转身再次助跑。若没有持续的前进，就不会有道德力量的积聚。要做到这点，践行并习惯此道，唯有通过持续的工作带来极大益处。”
除了前面的两个准则之外，还可以增加第三条准则：每当做出决定后，每逢产生有助于形成所渴望的习惯的情绪时，就抓住第一个机会立即行动。决定和渴望把新的“习惯模式”传递给大脑，并不是发生在它们形成之时，而是在产生行动效果之际。正如前面所引的作家所说：
“实际机会的出现，为杠杆提供了支点，通过它，道德意志可以增加其力量，把自己高高举起。而不能为支点提供坚实支撑的人，只会停留在空洞摆姿态的阶段。”
一个人不论信奉多少准则，也不论思想多么敏锐，若不抓住每个机会采取行动，其个性将无缘改善。仅仅有良好的意愿，如谚语所说，就会铺就一条通向地狱之路。这是我们制定的原则会带来的显而易见的结果。正如J. S．密尔所说，“性格是得到完全塑造的意志”。意志，在他所指的意义上，是在生活中主要遇到的所有紧急情况下，所采取的一切坚定、明确的行动倾向。行动的倾向在我们心中根深蒂固的程度，与行动实际不间断发生的频率成正比，而且大脑也随着它们的使用而“成长”。决心或美好的感觉没有产生实际结果就烟消云散了，这比失去一个机会还要糟糕；它将阻碍决心与情绪找到正常的流注渠道。性格最可鄙的一类人，是缺乏勇气的感伤主义者和空想家，一生都在感性与情感的海波中翻滚，而从未做出一件真正有男子气魄的事迹。卢梭便是一个经典的例子：他用卓越的口才煽动法国所有的母亲崇尚自然，亲自养育子女，而他自己却把孩子送到育婴堂。就我们每个人而言，若在心中萌发朦胧抽象的善意后，却在实际情况中，只看到丑陋的“其他特殊情况”，看不到背后掩藏的可以行的善，那便是某种程度上重蹈了卢梭之路。在这平凡的世界中，所有的善都会被伴随左右的粗俗所掩饰；但若仅能识别以纯粹抽象的形式存在的善，就未免太可悲可叹了。沉溺于阅读小说和观看戏剧，就会产生此类恶魔。俄罗斯妇人为戏剧中的虚拟人物哭泣垂泪，却不顾门外等候她的车夫在座位上冻得要死，这种事情时有发生，却不太引人注目。既不是演员，也没有欣赏天赋的人，其沉溺音乐的习惯或许对性格产生削弱的效果。如果一个人产生的感情习惯性地不引发任何行动，其怠惰的情绪状态将保持下去。补救的方法是，不要在音乐会上放纵感情，除非事后以某种积极的方式将其表达出来。让表达成为世界上最起码的行动吧——如果做不出英雄壮举，那就和颜悦色地对姑母说话，或者在马车上起身让座——但是一定要表达。
后面的几个例子使我们清楚了：习惯在大脑中所刻下的印痕，不仅仅包括流注的具体渠道，还包括流注的一般形式。如果任由情绪无端消失，情绪就会进入无端消失的模式；同样，有理由相信，倘若本该努力时我们却退缩不前，努力的能力很快就会消失，而我们还浑然不觉；而且，如果我们任由注意力涣散，不久之后，注意力就再也无法集中了。后面我们将会看到，注意与努力只不过是同一个心理事实的两个不同的名字而已。它们对哪些大脑活动过程做出响应，尚不得而知。它们并非纯粹的精神活动，而是要依赖大脑活动过程。这种看法的最有力证明是：它们在某种程度上为习惯法则——一个实实在在的法则——所制约。最后一个实际准则和这些意志习惯有关，我们可以提供如下建议：通过每天做一点无关紧要的锻炼，让努力的机制在头脑中得以保留。也就是说，在琐碎而无足轻重的时点，保持坚忍、勇敢；每天做一两件不愿意做的事；当真正需要的时候，你就能够经受住考验，不会手足无措、毫无条理了。这种坚忍行为就像是为房子和货物所上的保险。缴纳这笔款项此时对他毫无益处，甚至可能永远都不会带来回报。但是倘若火灾真的降临，他所购买的保险将把他从废墟中拯救出来。在琐碎小事上注意培养习惯，使自己拥有集中的注意力、坚定的意志、自我克制的人，也是一样。四面楚歌之时，他仍会像巨塔一样耸立，而那些意志不坚的人则像谷壳一样在风中飘散无踪了。
因此，对精神状况进行生理研究，会为激励伦理学提供最为有力的支持。神学已向我们启示，死后需要承受地狱之苦，但现世习惯性地以错误方式塑造性格会带来更多的灾难。如果年轻人能够意识到，不久之后他们就会被习惯所驱使，那么他们就会更加关注自己在习惯形成时期的行为。我们在编织自己的命运，不论是好还是坏，不会重来。一点善举、一个恶行，都会留下不小的痕迹。杰斐逊剧中的醉汉瑞普·凡·温克尔每次失职都会安慰自己：“这次不算！”好吧！就算他自己不去计算，慈爱的上苍也不去计算，但冥冥中的力量还是会毫厘不爽地计算的。在他的神经细胞和纤维之间，无数分子在默默地计数、录入和储存，当下一次诱惑来临之时，就会对他不利。在严格的科学意义上，我们所做的任何事都不会完全磨灭。当然，这有好的一面，也有坏的一面。一杯一杯地饮酒，我们会成为积习难改的酒鬼；同样，一次一次的行动，一个小时又一个小时的工作，可以使我们成为品德高尚的圣人，成为实践或科学领域的权威与专家。无论教育的过程如何，年轻人都不必对教育的结果感到忧虑。只要在工作日的每个小时都认真而忙碌地工作，结果自然会水到渠成。完全可以确定的是，某天清晨醒来，他会发现自己已成为一代人中的佼佼者，无论他选择了什么样的追求目标。在他完成一项项具体工作的时候，对此类问题的判断力会在他的身上默默地积聚，形成一种永不消失的财富。年轻人应该尽早知道这个真理，因为比起所有其他因素，若对此一无所知，可能会令刚刚踏上艰巨职业生涯的年轻人产生更多的胆怯与懦弱。
（李春江 译）
