habit, other habits may have to be bent[1] or even, sometimes, broken. (a) The general principle is that in proportion to the stability of the nervous system of the individual, according to age, sex, or vigor, may a habit be suddenly bent down out of existence. (b) A second process of displacing a habit is busy normality. And a third, (c) is replacement with some other more useful habit. In general, students who are apt to read these pages can break short off whatever habits conflict with the thinking or the study habit.
A sixth and last element in easy thinking is opportunity for thought, in time and in relative solitude. Many of us are "too busy" (but with far less productive things) really to live or really to think. We should make time, make solitude, for thought. People are often much too continuously together, especially young people. Each individual is separate, and occasionally requires individual separate self-communion. Most of us should room alone, or else manage in some way to spend considerable time alone in the forest, along the seashore or brookside, or even
- ↑ See for a recent discussion of habit-bending G. V. N. Dearborn: "Habit and Malocclusion", Medical Record, New York, 88, 18, 3 Oct. 1915, 727-732; and "An Ideal Gift for Your Children", American Physical Education Review, XXI, 7, 1916.
