96 Rev. J. Wills on Mr. Stewart's Explanation of 



CHAPTER II. 



THE SAME ARGUMENT ILLUSTRATED BY A MORE EXTENDED APPLICATION — THE 



ORATOR. 



In passing from cases in which the mental process approaches nearly within the 

 ordinary range of that class of ideas, of which no one doubts the unity, it may 

 be necessary to proceed with new caution. Hitherto our instances have had the 

 advantage of the important character of being free from any element, not com- 

 monly recognized in single ideas : no difficulty has arisen from their duration, or 

 apparent variation ; all, as I have endeavoured to show, being comprehended toge- 

 ther within the limits of duration which appertain to single acts of thought. This 

 last fact is especially important to be borne in mind ; as it offers the essential 

 characteristic by which I would ascertain the unity of the mental process. But 

 when I distinguish the instances now to be explained from those already offered, 

 the distinction is only apparent. The difference in this respect is only just such as to 

 present a difficulty to the apprehension : the intellectual processes are the same, 

 and the reasoning, were it to be distinctly followed out, would be the same. This 

 will now, however, be the less required, as I have some trust that the elementary 

 process has been satisfactorily ascertained ; and the far more complicated nature 

 of the example now to be noticed would render the same method hitherto fol- 

 lowed, both tedious and difficult, and occupy an unwarrantable length of the 

 Academy's time. 



I have already endeavoured to shew, that there can be no reason for fixing 

 any limits to the operation of the function which is known to be so active, or 

 which has so large an ascertained compass, as the associating faculty. From the 

 simplest commencement of its operation, where it is merely suggestive, to the 

 completion of its task, when oft-repeated association is lost in the simultaneous 

 unity of combination : from the simple combination which invests three or four 

 letters with a mora^ or physical existence, to the wide and varied array of remotely 

 related, or even discordant notions, forms, reasons, and abstractions, which, from 

 their compass, variety, number, and even inconstant and fleeting connexions, re- 

 ject the identifying stamp of a name ; all are still subject to the operation of a 



