A story is told of an English minister who offered a prize to
the boy who would write the best composition in five minutes on
“How to Overcome a Habit.”
At the expiration of five minutes the compositions were read.
The prize went to a lad of nine years. The following is his
essay:
“Well, sir, habit is hard to overcome. If you take off the first
letter, it does not change ‘a bit.’ If you take off another, you
still have a ‘bit’ left. If you take off still another the whole
of ‘it’ remains. If you take off another, it is wholly used up;
all of which goes to show that if you want to get rid of habit
you must throw it off altogether.”
(1333)