Not until such mechanization has been
accomplished is the conduct truly ours. When, for example, I am
winning the power of speech, I gradually cease to study exactly the
word I utter, the tone in which it is enunciated, how my tongue, lips,
and teeth shall be adjusted in reference to one another. While
occupied with these things, I am no speaker. I become such only when,
the moment I think of a word, the actions needed for its utterance set
themselves in motion. With them I have only a negative concern.
Indeed, as we grow maturer of speech, collocations of words stick
naturally together and offer themselves to our service. When we
require a certain range of words from which to draw our means of
communication, there they stand ready. We have no need to rummage the
dimness of the past for them. Mechanically they are prepared for our
service.
Of course this does not imply that at one period we foolishly believed
consciousness to be an important guide, but subsequently becoming
wiser, discarded its aid. On the contrary, the mechanization of second
nature is simply a mode of extending the influence of consciousness
more widely. The conclusions of our early lectures were sound. The
more fully expressive conduct can be of a self-conscious personality,
so much the more will it deserve to be called good.
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