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 ...

162 TlHE ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS.
This indeed pleases only on slight occasions, when it may be
supposed that the mind is in some degree playful, and under
the influence of those principles of association which commonly
take place when we are careless and disengaged. Every person must be offended with the second line of the following
couplet, which forms part of a very sublime description of the
Divine power:"' Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part,
As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart." - Essay on Man, Ep. i.
To these observations, it may be added, that things which
have no known relation to each other are often associated in
consequence of their producing similar effects on the mind.
Some of the finest poetical allusions are founded on this principle; and accordingly, if the reader is not possessed of sensibility congenial to that of the poet, he will be apt to overlook
their meaning, or to censure them as absurd. To such a critic,
it would not be easy to vindicate the beauty of the following
stanza, in an ode addressed to a lady by the author of the
" Seasons: "- -
" 0 thou, whose tender, serious eye,
Expressive speaks the soul I love;
The gentle azure of the sky,
The pensive shadows of the grove."
The principles of association divided into two classes. -I have
already said, that the view of the subject which I propose to
take, does not require a complete enumeration of our principles
of association. There is, however, an important distinction
among them, to which I shall have occasion frequently to refer;
and which, as far as I know, has not hitherto attracted the
notice of philosophers. The relations upon which some of them
are founded, are perfectly obvious to the mind; those which are
the foundation of others, are discovered only in consequence of
particular efforts of attention. Of the former kind, are the relations of resemblance and analogy, of contrariety, of vicinity in
time and place, and those which arise from accidental coincidences in the sound of different words. These, in general, con