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 ...

THE INFLUENCE OF CASUAL ASSOCIATIONS. 215
any particular efforts of study. The laws of nature, which it is
most material for us to know, are exposed to the immediate
observation of our senses; and establish, by means of the principle of association, a corresponding order in our thoughts, long
before the dawn of reason and reflection; or at least, long before
that period of' childhood, to which our recollection afterwards
extends.
This tendency of the mind to associate together events which
have been presented to it nearly at the same time, although,
on the whole, it is attended with infinite advantages, yet like
many other principles of our nature, may occasionally be a
source of inconvenience, unless we avail ourselves of our reason
and of our experience in keeping it under proper regulation.
Among the various phenomena which are continually passing
before us, there is a great proportion, whose vicinity in time does
not indicate a constancy of conjunction; and unless we be careful to make the distinction between these two classes of connections, the order of our ideas will be apt to correspond with the
one as well as with the other; and our unenlightened experience
of the past will fill the mind, in numberless instances, with vain
expectations, or with groundless alarms, concerning the future.
This disposition to confound together accidental and permanent
connections, is one great source of popular superstitions. Hence
the regard which is paid to unlucky days; to unlucky colors; and
to the influence of the planets;- apprehensions which render
human life, to many, a continued series of absurd terrors. Lucretius compares them to those which children feel, from an idea
of the existence of spirits in the dark.
purposes, would be the same as if events succeeded each other at random,
and not in an unchangeable sequence. Before the past can be a safe guide
as to the future, it is necessary, not only that the same effect should always
follow the same cause, but also that the sight of the cause should always
and instantly remind us of what is sure to succeed. In this respect, as in
many others, the mind is a microcosm; it mirrors to us those aspects of
external nature which are most necessary to be presented fer the safety of
the individual. The law of causation is also the law of memory."] -
Bow en's Lozuell Lectures, p. 398.