_Consciousness is a momentary thing._ It is a passing state. It is
ephemeral and flitting. It is made up _in part of present
sense-impressions_ and in part of past experiences. These past
experiences are brought forth from subconsciousness. Some are
voluntarily brought forth. Some present themselves without our conscious
volition, but by the operation of the laws of association and
dissociation. Some we seem unable voluntarily to recall, yet they may
appear when least we are expecting them. It is these last to which we
have referred as lost in subconscious forgetfulness. As a matter of
fact, _none_ are ever actually _lost_.

[Sidenote: _Making Experience Count_]

All the wealth of your past experience is still yours--a concrete part
of your personality. All that is required to make it available for your
present use is a sufficient concentration of your attention, _a
concentration of attention that shall dwell persistently and exclusively
upon those associations that bear upon the fact desired_.

The tendency of the mind toward dissociation, a function limiting the
indiscriminate recall of associated "groups," is also manifested in all
of us in the transfer to unconsciousness of many _muscular activities_.

[Sidenote: _How Habits Are Formed_]

As infants we learn to walk only by giving to every movement of the
limbs the most deliberate conscious attention. Yet, in time, the
complicated co-operation of muscular movements involved in walking
becomes involuntary and unconscious, so that we are no longer even aware
of them.