Elements of the philosophy of the human mind. By Dugald Stewart. Rev. and abridged, with critical and explanatory notes, for the use of colleges and schools. By Francis Bowen ...

150 THE ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS.
on a level with the greatest. In important situations, accordingly, men of the most general views are found not to be inferior to the vulgar in their attention to details; because the
objects and occurrences which such situations present, rouse
their passions, and interest their curiosity, from the* magnitude
of the consequences to which they lead.
When theoretical knowledge and practical skill are happily
combined in the same person, the intellectual power of man
appears in its full perfection; and fits him equally to conduct,
with a masterly hand, the details of ordinary business, and to
contend successfully with the untried difficulties of new and
hazardous situations. In conducting the former, mere experience may fiequently be a sufficient guide; but experience and
speculation must be combined together to prepare us for the
latter. "Expert men," says Lord Bacon, "can execute and
judge of particulars one by one; but the general counsels, and
the plots, and the marshalling of affairs, come best from those
that are learned."
CHAPTER V
OF THE ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS.
THE subject on which I am now to enter, naturally divides
itself' into Two Parts. The First relates to the influence of
Association in regulating the succession of our thoughts; the
Second, to its influence on the intellectual powers, and on the
moral character, by the more intimate and indissoluble combinations which it leads us to form in infancy and in early youth.
The two inquiries, indeed, run into each other; but it will contribute much to the order of our speculations, to keep the foregoing arrangement in view.