Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/477

ROUTINE PROCESS. 463 process. Whenever he chances to meet such an expression, he ignores it, or quietly turns to investigate its correctness. Again. Say a man thinks that it is important to observe objects directly, carefully, repeatedly, for a prolonged period, and under differing conditions ; and to compare the observed objects, in the same manner, with different objects of an apparently like or similar nature. He may also have decided to extend cautiously any simple proposition which he draws up or any general fact. He may have determined to con- sider in discussion one item carefully, rather than skip from subject to subject. He may have made other wise or stupid resolutions for the conduct of his understanding ; or perhaps he was taught these at home or at school ; or perhaps he gathered them one point here or one point there ; or perhaps he imitated that which appeared to him to be the method of his tutor's thought. In any case, the act which will follow the adoption of these resolutions will be of the same nature as that delineated when we traced the evolution of writing. The road of development will be strewn with many difficulties and pursue a devious course. In the end much of this man's reasoning will be performed in a quasi- automatic manner. The proposition or fact will be exploited in the fashion referred to. He will attend keenly, experiencing perhaps a great strain without being conscious of it, and disputing the fact of his procedure a minute afterwards. Recollection of theories stands in the way of rapid thought as of rapid action. Much of our limited energy would be wasted by attending to them. The preceding examples show that experience and train- ing impose on the mind as on the body. From infancy onwards a multitude of routine processes evolve ; and these make up our character as practical men or as theorists. Apart from such activities it would be as impossible to con- ceive of intellectual labour as of bodily labour. Mental efficiency depends on properly developed trends. Given mental life of any kind in the child, and the course of events inevitably transforms that activity into an organic complex. Our modes of thought are thus necessarily organised. It will be said : Granted the existence and the importance of trends in the mind, we still know that they are the result of non-routine activity. The business of the mind lies in forming these. They themselves are but the lifeless tools of the ego. Analysis is not satisfied with that answer. We saw how in physical matters one routine act really grew out of others of its kind ; how physical activity as a whole was organised.