certain Processes of the Human Understanding. 99 



leads him far astray from the track of observation. And it is, indeed, almost 

 apparent from his language, that a second and more deliberate consideration 

 would have led him to an inference, which, though opposed to his propositions, is 

 directly involved in all his language. He had only to ask himself the question, 

 why — having assigned so much of the very same operations to habit and associa- 

 tion as he manifestly does — ^he should stop at a certain point, and not observe the 

 strict analogy that pervades the entire work of the mind from first to last. 



As the accomptant has insensibly treasured all the usual combinations of figures ; 

 as the fluent reader similarly possesses all the usual groups of letters, syllables 

 with their wonted sounds; as the musician has the same possession of the two 

 classes of simultaneous and successive indications of sound ; so, in the separate 

 pursuits of life, there is, incidental to every one, a peculiar range and grouping 

 of the materials of professional avocation, all so ready at command, and so inde- 

 pendent of separate attention and voluntary effort, as to admit to some extent of 

 other trains of thought being at the same time engaged in. The poetical land- 

 scape painter can, with one glance of his imagination, throw together into one 

 single whole, all the vast and boundless varieties of observed nature ; the modi- 

 fications of form, colour, light, and distance are at his command : sky with its 

 blue depths and fantastic pageantry of cloudwork, earth with its varieties of hill 

 and dale, forest and lake, from the mountain receding into etherial distance, to 

 the flowers and weeds which diversify and animate his foreground. These, 

 without conscious eflbrt, roll together like new creations, at the very caprice of a 

 moment. Nor is this all ; with equal facility the groups of life, armies, proces- 

 sions, and all the bustle and pageantry of civil life start up in the conception, 

 or fill an imaginary canvas with the additional incidents of representation, the 

 adaptations of life and proportion which deceive the eye. These combinations, — 

 and let me say, that I would not here dwell upon such a fact, did I not believe 

 it, in different degrees, common to all minds, — offer a wide range of the most 

 complicated conceptions of that kind which the mind most rapidly and easily 

 throws together with the fertility of a kaleidescope, because being mainly con- 

 versant with visible images, they demand less attention and study in their acqui- 

 sition, and form a great portion of the common stock. Every one is master of a 

 certain stock of intellectual maps of familiar places and accustomed roads, as well as 

 pictures and portraits, which supply the ofiice of terms. From the same compen- 



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