habitual actions, we are not explicitly conscious of struggle. But these habits had themselves to be formed, and they were formed by the repetition of deliberate acts. In the formation of habits, as we have seen, the struggle is often fierce; and if it be true that much or most of our moral conduct is habitual, that only means that we are now reaping reward or punishment for victories or defeats in former moral struggles. But however much of our moral life has been taken over by the automatism of habit, scarcely a day or even an hour passes without the emergence of a situation which involves moral struggle. Every day brings with it new situations and new circumstances, and however habitual our way of life may have become, we are forced to adapt it to the new conditions. Unruly desires solicit satisfaction, flitting ideas distract our attention, capricious emotions affect our equanimity. In some cases the struggle between the self and the distraction may be so slight that we are hardly aware of it at all, in others the victory may be won in a moment, for we put the intruding thought or desire from us without hesitation. In other instances the struggle may continue for days or weeks, and produce the profoundest moral anxiety. But whether the struggle be severe or not, it is in the hours of conflict that character is moulded. Goodness of character is not a talent or gift. It must be attained or achieved.
§2. The Virtues, or Aspects of Goodness. In ordinary speech a distinction is commonly observed between virtue and goodness. We talk indifferently of "virtue" and "goodness" in the abstract, but
