84

1908 Nov 18
Logic
I.i. 3

are neither a child nor a dullard, but are a normal adult
of sufficient intelligence to be interested in methods and their
adaptation to ends and not to confine your admirations to
successful results, which are (these being usually more or less fortuitous,) a
character which places your intelligence, in my estimation, in a
class decidedly above that of the average of mankind.
Such being the case, I risk nothing in assuming that you are
are well aware that the exercise over our of control over our
habits, if it is not the most important business of life, is at least very
near to being so; and I dare say you have taken some pains to
discover just how that control is effected. The word 'habit', as it
is ordinarily used, is not does not convey the precise quite the idea that I
seek to convey. It is, I think, usually taken to denote any character of a