ture. This fubject, in itself obscure, has been much neglected; and to give a com plete analysis of it will be no eafy tafk.c pretend only to touch it curforily; hoping, however, that what is here laid down, will difpofe more diligent inquirers to attempt further discoveries. any Custom refpects the action, habit the actor. By custom we mean, a frequent reiteration of the fame act; and by habit, the effect that cuftom has on the mind or body. This effect may be either active, witness the dexterity produced by cuftom in performing certain exercises; or paffive, as when, by cuftom, a peculiar connection is formed betwixt la man and some agreeable object, which acquires thereby a greater power to raise emotions in him than it hath naturally. Active habits come not under the prefent undertaking; and therefore I confine myself to those that are paffive. 1 $5.00 This subject is thorny and intricate. Some pleasures are fortified by cuftom; and yet custom begets familiarity, and confequently windifference ལ indifference *. In many inftances, fatiety and difguft are the confequences of reitera tion. Again, though cuftom blunts the edge of distress and of pain; yet the want of any thing to which we have long been ac cuftomed, is a fort of torture. A clue to guide us through all the intricacies of this labyrinth, would be an acceptable present. Whatever be the caufe, it is an eftablifhed fact, that we are much influenced by cuftom. It hath an effect upon our pleafures, upon our actions, and even upon our thoughts and fentiments. Habit makes no figure during the vivacity of youth; in middle age it gains ground; and in old age it governs without control. In that period of life, generally fpeaking, we eat at a certain hour, take exercise at a certain hour, go to rest at a certain hour, all by the direction of habit. Nay a particular seat, table, bed, comes to be effential. And a habit in * If all the year were playing holidays, To fport would be as tedious as to work: But when they feldom come, they wish'd-for come, First part, Henry IV. act 1. Sc. 3 any of these, cannot be contradicted without uneafinefs. Any flight or moderate pleasure frequently reiterated for a long time, forms a connection betwixt us and the thing that causes the pleasure. This connection, termed habit, has the effect to raise our defire or appetite for that thing when it returns not as ufual. During the courfe of enjoyment, the pleasure grows infenfibly stronger till a habit be eftablished; at which time the pleasure is at its height. It continues not however ftationary. The fame customary reiteration which carried it to its height, brings it down again by infenfible degrees, even lower than it was at firft. But of this circumftance afterward. What at present we have in view, is to prove by experiments, that thofe things which at firft are but moderately agreeable, are the apteft to become habitual. Spirituous liquors, at first fcarce agreeable, readily produce an habitual appetite; and cuftom prevails fo far, as even to make us fond of things originally difagreeable, fuch as coffee, affa-foetida, and tobacco, tobacco. This is pleasantly illuftrated by Congreve : Fainall. For a paffionate lover, methinks you are a man fomewhat too difcerning in the failings of your mistress. Mirabell. And for a difcerning man, fomewhat too paffionate a lover; for I like her with all her faults; nay like her for her faults. Her follies. are so natural, or fo artful, that they become her; and thofe affectations which in another woman would be odious, ferve but to make her more agreeable. I'll tell thee, Fainall, fhe once us'd me with that infolence, that in revenge I took her to pieces, fifted her, and separated her failings; I study'd 'em, and got 'em by rote. The catalogue was fo large, that I was not without hopes, one day or other, to hate her heartily: to which end I fo us'd myself to think of 'em, that at length, contrary to my design and expectation, they gave me hour lefs and lefs difturbance; till in a few days it became habitual to me, to remember 'em without being difpleafed. They are now grown as familiar to me as my own frailties; and in all probability, in a little time longer, I fhall like 'em as well. every The way of the world, at 1. fc. 3. A A walk upon the quarterdeck, though intolerably confined, becomes however for au greeable by cuftom, that a failor in his walk on fhore, confines himself commonly within the fame bounds. I knew a man who had relinquished the fea for a country-life. In the corner of his garden he reared an artificial mount with a level fummit, refembling moft accurately a quarterdeck, not only in shape but in fize; and this was his choice walk. Play or gaming, at first barely amufing by the occupation it affords, be comes in time extremely agreeable; and is frequently profecuted with avidity, as if it were the chief bufinefs of life. The fame obfervation is applicable to the pleasures of the internal fenfes, thofe of knowledge and virtue in particular. Children have scarce any fense of these pleasures; and men very little, who are in the state of nature without culture. Our tafte for virtue and knowledge improves flowly; but is capable of growing stronger than any other appetite in human nature. To introduce a habit, frequency of acts is not alone fufficient: length of time is al fo |