410 FRANCIS GALTON : exorcised subsequently by the same process ; so I had a threefold experience." Here the opposition occasioned no struggle, and was accom- panied by no balancing of pleasures and pains. A passionate feeling was quieted by a consideration that was almost unfelt. It was annihilated by turning off, as it were, some tap at its source. I do not say that if I had yielded to the sense of irrita- tion I might not have subsequently felt pains of remorse, but that has nothing to do with what actually occurred. I am sure that I did not consciously discount the contingent remorse, and balance its present proceeds of pain against the present pleasure of indulging in anger. Habit is another colourless influence that obtains easy victories. We are so drilled by social life that we perform, as a matter of course, multitudes of acts that a solitary being governed by his likes and dislikes would think preposterous. Here is an example of one of these common cases condensed out of my note-book, with changed details as before. " An imperious old lady, infirm and garrulous, called at my house just as I had finished much weary work and was preparing with glee for a long walk. Hearing that I was at home, she dismissed her carriage for three quarters of an hour, so I was her prisoner for all that time. As she talked with little cessation, I had full opportunity for questioning myself on the feeling that supported me through the infliction. The response always shaped itself in the same way, ' Social duties may not be disregarded ; besides, this is a capital occasion for introspection '." Leaving aside the last clause of the reply, we see here, as before, how a keen desire may wither under the influence of something about which our consciousness is scarcely exercised ; some one of the many habits, whose quiet and firm domination gives a steadiness and calm, to mature life that children cannot comprehend. Those who find a difficulty in understanding how a feebly felt mental action can vanquish a strong desire, will find the difficulty vanish if they consent to assume a physiological and not a psychical standpoint. The gain is as great as that of viewing the planetary system after the fashion of Copernicus, instead of that of Ptolemy. There is nothing contrary to experience in supposing that conflicting physiological actions may be perceived with a distinctness quite disproportionate to their real efficacy. We may compare the conflict between faintly perceived activities of one kind and clearly perceived activities of another kind, to that between troops dressed in a uniform scarcely distinguishable from the back-ground with others clad in staring scarlet. We must be content to admit that our consciousness has a very inexact cognisance of the physiological battles in our brain, and that the mystery why apparently weak motives of one class
