aids in making these habits intelligent and effective. Consciousness
evidently aids, for example, in developing the instinctive movements of
the legs into the rhythmic habitual movements of walking, and those of
the hands into the later habits of holding the spoon, knife, cup, etc.
Greater still would be the influence of consciousness in developing the
crude instinct of self-preservation into the habitual reactions of the
spearman or boxer. In general, therefore, instinctive tendencies in man
are subject to intelligent training, and may thereby be moulded into
effective habits of reaction.

=B. On Habitual Action.=--Further new habits may be established and old
ones improved under the direction of conscious reaction. When a child
first learns to represent the number four by the symbol, the problem is
necessarily met at first through a conscious adjustment. In other words,
the child must mentally associate into a single new experience the
number idea and certain ideas of form and of muscular movement.
Although, however, the child is conscious of all of these factors when
he first attempts to give expression to this experience, it is clear
that very soon the expressive act of writing the number is carried on
without any conscious direction of the process. In other words, the
child soon acquires the habit of performing the act spontaneously, or
without direction from the mind. Inversely, any habitual mode of
action, in whatever way established, may, if we possess the necessary
experience, be represented in idea and be accepted or corrected
accordingly. A person, for instance, who has acquired the necessary
knowledge of the laws of hygiene, may represent ideally both his own and
the proper manner of standing, sitting, reclining, etc., and seek to
modify his present habits accordingly. The whole question of the
relation of conscious to habitual reaction will, however, be considered
in Chapter XXII.