CHAPTER NINTH. LAWS OF ASSOCIATION. (I) PRIMARY LAWS. f. 101. Meaning of association and extent of its appli- OUR thoughts and feelings follow each other in a regular train. Of this statement no one needs any other proof, than his individual experience. We all know, not only that our minds are susceptible of new states, but what is more, that this capability of new states is not fortuitous, but has its laws. Therefore, we not only say, that our thoughts and feelings succeed each other, but that this antecedence and sequence is in a regular train. To this regular and established consecution of the states of the mind we give the name of MENTAL ASSOCIATION. And it is proper to suggest here, that this part of our constitution is worthy of the most attentive consideration. Although at present all we have to do is to consider its general nature and its laws, many portions of our subsequent inquiries will help to illustrate its particular applications, its extent, and power. It exerts its influence on almost every thought; it binds its efficacy on almost every emotion. Whatever the time or place, the period of life, the allotment of rank or degradation, of joy or suffering, of sad solitude or bustling notoriety, it makes no difference; it never fails to found its empire, and to put forth its supremacy, wherever there is an intellect to contemplate, and a heart to feel. "When I was travelling through the wilds of America, (says the eloquent Chateaubriand,) I was not a little surprized to hear, that I had a countryman established as a resident, at some distance in the woods. I visited him with eagerness, and found him employed in pointing some stakes at the door of his hut. He cast a look towards me which was cold enough, and continued his work, but the moment I addressed him in French, he started at the recollection of his country, and the big tear stood in his eye. These well known accents suddenly roused in the heart of the old man, all the sensatio is of his infancy. In youth we little regret the pleasures of our first years; but the further we advance into life the more interesting to us becomes the recollection of them; for then every one of our days presents a sad subject of comparison."* §. 102. Of the term Association and its general laws. The term, ASSOCIATION, is perhaps preferable to any other. It may, with no little appearance of reason, be objected to the word, SUGGESTION, which has sometimes been employed, that it seems to imply a positive power or efficiency of the preceding state of the mind in producing the subsequent. But of the existence of such an efficiency we have no evidence. All that we know is the fact, that our thoughts and feelings, under certain circum-. stances, appear together and keep each other company;And this is what is understood to be expressed, and is all, that is expressed, by the term ASSOCIATION. By the Laws of association, we mean no other than the general designation of those circumstances, under which the regular consecution of mental states, which has been mentioned, occurs. The following may be mentioned as among the primary, or more important of those laws, although it is not necessary to take upon us to assert either that the enumeration is complete, or that some better arrangement of them might not be proposed, viz., RESEMBLANCE, CONTRAST, CONTIGUITY in time and place, and CAUSE and EFFECT. *Chateaubriand's recollections of Italy, England, and America. §. 103. Resemblance the first general law of association. New trains of ideas and new emotions are occasioned by resemblance; but when we say, that they are occasioned in this way, all that is meant is, that there is a new state of mind, immediately subsequent to the perception of the resembling object. Of the efficient cause of this new state of mind under these circumstances, we can only say, the Creator of the soul has seen fit to appoint this connection in its operations, without our being able, or deeming it necesssary to give any further explanation. A traveller, wandering in a foreign land, finds himself in the course of his sojournings in the midst of aspects of nature not unlike those, where he has formerly resided, and the fact of this resemblance becomes the antecedent to new states of mind. There is distinctly brought before him the scenery, which he has left, his own woods, his waters, and his home. The emperor Napoleon, whose present cares might be supposed to have broken the chain of thought and feeling, that bound him to the past, is said to have once expressed himself thus. "Last Sunday evening, in the general silence of nature, I was walking in these grounds, (of Malmaison.) The sound of the churchbell of Ruel fell upon my ear, and renewed all the impressions of my youth. I was profoundly affected, such is the power of early associations and habit; and I considered, if such was the case with me, what must be the effect of such recollections upon the more simple and credulous vulgar ?"* The result is the same in any other case, whenever there is a resemblance between what we now experience, and what we have previously experienced. We have been acquainted, for instance, at some former period with a person, whose features appeared to us to possess some peculiarity, a breadth and openness of the forehead, an uncommon expression of the eye, or some other striking mark; -to day we meet a stranger in the crowd, by which we are surrounded, whose features are of a somewhat "Scott's Life of Napoleon, vol. in. ch. xxxiv. similar cast, and the resemblance at once vividly suggests the likeness of our old acquaintance. § 104. Resemblance in every particular not necessary. It is not necessary, that the RESEMBLANCE should be complete in every particular, in order to its being a principle or law of association. It so happens, (to use an illustration of Brown,*) that we see a painted portrait of a female countenance, which is adorned with a ruff of a peculiar breadth and display; and we are, in consequence, immediately reminded of queen Elizabeth. Not because there is any resemblance between the features before us and those of the English sovereign, but because in all the painted representations, which we have seen of her, she is uniformly set off with this peculiarity of dress, with a ruff like that, which we now see. Here the resemblance between the suggesting thing and that, which is suggested, is not a complete resemblance, does not exist in all the particulars, in which they may be compared together, but is limited to a part of the dress. That a single resembling circumstance, (and perhaps one of no great importance,) should so readily suggest the complete conception of another object or scene, which is made up of a great variety of parts, seems to admit of some explanation in this way. We take, for example, an individual; the idea, which we form of the individual is a complex one, made up of the forehead, eyes, lips, hair, general figure, dress, &c. These separate, subordinate ideas, when combined together and viewed as a whole, have a near analogy to any of our ideas, which are compounded, and are capable of being resolved into elements more simple. When, therefore, we witness a ruff of a size and decoration more than ordinary, we are at once reminded of that ornament in the habiliments of the British queen; and this on the ground of resemblance.— But this article in the decorations of her person is the foundation of only one part of a very complex state of mind, which embraces the features and the general appearance, As there has been a long continued co-exist • Brown's Philosophy of the Human Mind, Lect. XXXV. ence of those separate parts, which make up this complex state, the recurrence to the mind of one part or of one idea is necessarily attended with the recurrence of all the others. They sustain the relation of near friends; they form a group, and do not easily and willingly admit of a separation. The principle, which maintains in the relation of co-existence such states of the mind, as may be considered as grouped together, is the same with that, which so steadily and permanently combines the parts of what Mr. Locke calls mixed modes or other complex ideas, and is no less effectual in its operation. §. 105. Of resemblance in the effects produced. Resemblance operates, as an associating principle, not only when there is a likeness or similarity in the things themselves, but also when there is a resemblance in the effects, which are produced upon the mind. The ocean, when greatly agitated by the winds, and threatening every moment to overwhelm us, produces in the mind an emotion, similar to that, which is caused by the presence of an angry man, who is able to do us harm. And in consequence of this similarity in the effects produced, they reciprocally bring each other to our recollection. Dark woods, hanging over the brow of a mountain, cause in us a feeling of awe and wonder, like that, which we feel, when we behold, approaching us, some aged person, whose form is venerable for his years, and whose name is renowned for wisdom and justice. It is in reference to this view of the principle, on which we are remarking, that the following comparison is introduced in. Akenside's Pleasures of the Imagination. "Mark the sable woods, "That shade sublime yon mountain's nodding brow; "Commands your steps! As if the reverend form "Of Minos or of Numa should forsake "The Elysian seats, and down the embowering glade As we are so constituted, that all nature produces in |