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 ...

154 THE ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS.
exist among our thoughts, have been long familiarly known to
the vulgar as well as to philosophers. It is, indeed, only of
late that we have been possessed of' an appropriated phrase to
express them; but that the general fact is not a recent discovery, may be inferred from many of the common maxims of
prudence and of propriety, which have plainly been suggested
by an attention to this part of our constitution. When~we lay
it down, for example, as a general rule, to avoid in conversation
all expressions, and all topics of discourse, which have any relation, however remote, to ideas of an unpleasant nature, we
plainly proceed on the supposition that there are certain connections among our thoughts, which have an influence over the
order of their succession. It is unnecessary to remark, how
much of the comfort and good-humor of social life depends on
an attention to this consideration. Such attentions are more
particularly essential in our intercourse with men of the world;
for the commerce of society has a wonderful effect in increasing
the quickness and the facility with which we associate all ideas
which have any reference to life and manners;* and, of consequence, it must render the sensibility alive to many circumstances which, from the remoteness of' their relation to the situation and history of the parties, would otherwise have passed
unnoticed.
When an idea, however, is thus suggested by association, it
produces a slighter impression, or, at least, it produces its impression more gradually, than if it were presented more directly
and immediately to the mind. And hence, when we are under
a necessity of communicating any disagreeable information to
another, delicacy leads us, instead of mentioning the thing itself,
* The superiority which the man of the world possesses over the recluse
student, in his knowledge of mankind, is partly the result of this quickness and facility of association. Those trifling circumstances in conversation and behavior, which, to the latter, convey only their most obvious
and avowed meaning, lay open to the former many of the trains of
thought which are connected with them, and frequently give him a distinct
view of a character, on that very side where it is supposed to be most conoealed from his observation.