Can we see that actions, for the acquisition of which experience is such
an obvious necessity, that whenever we see the acquisition we assume the
experience, gradate away imperceptibly into actions which seem, according
to all reasonable analogy, to necessitate experience--of which, however,
the time and place are so obscure, that they are not now commonly
supposed to have any connection with _bona fide_ experience at all.
Eating and drinking appear to be such actions. The new-born child cannot
eat, and cannot drink, but he can swallow as soon as he is born; and
swallowing appears (as we may remark in passing) to have been an earlier
faculty of animal life than that of eating with teeth. The ease and
unconsciousness with which we eat and drink is clearly attributable to
practice; but a very little practice seems to go a long way--a
suspiciously small amount of practice--as though somewhere or at some
other time there must have been more practice than we can account for. We
can very readily stop eating or drinking, and can follow our own action
without difficulty in either process; but as regards swallowing, which is
the earlier habit, we have less power of self-analysis and control: when
we have once committed ourselves beyond a certain point to swallowing, we
must finish doing so,--that is to say, our control over the operation
ceases.
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