637 



ASSONANCE. 



ASSURANCE. 



638 



of the associating faculty itself, which is not equally acute in every 

 individual, nor equally active at all times in the same individual. 



Sometimes trains of associations involuntarily convey the thoughts to 

 subjects foreign to our wishes. They run away, as it were, with our 

 ideas ; and, regardless "of the unities of time or place, awaken images 

 and recollections which not only startle us by their abruptness, but 

 occasion us at times no little trouble to account for their presence. 

 This mental phenomenon admits of easy explanation. While the 

 volitions of thought are intensely directed to a particular subject, the 

 associations act in subordination to that which is, for the time, " the 

 ruling idea of the mind ; " when this mental intensity subsides, and 

 the attention ceases to concentrate the faculties of thought, the mind 

 relapses into that desultory state which is its ordinary mood in the 

 absence of excitement. Hence the attention which fixes the thoughts 

 controls the associations ; the relaxation of attention which allows the 

 thoughts to wander, grants the same license to the associations. A 

 striking illustration of this fact is to be found in what are called 

 reveries a state of mental ennui, in which the mind shrinks from 

 exertion, and resigns itself to the guidance of the associations. In 

 sleep, this emancipation from mental direction is still more complete ; 

 in consequence of which, the order and perspicuity of thought, so 

 conspicuous while attention presides over intellectual exertion, are 

 deranged. Strange contradictions and anomalies present themselves, 

 announcing the suspension of that faculty whose office it is to restrain 

 the wild and involuntary action of the associating power. 



It should be added, however, that, although our associations roam 

 at large during slumber, and although they may occasionally refuse to 

 come and go at our bidding at other moments, yet they are capable of 

 being controlled and regulated to a very high degree. A habit of 

 attention is the governing power. Attention implies abstraction from 

 desultory thoughts, and the act of mental direction to a particular 

 subject. The influence of this habit keeps the associations under con- 

 trol ; the want of it renders our waking thoughts little less incongruous 

 than the dreams of sleep. It is one of the singular properties of asso- 

 ciation, that it acts upon the moral as strongly as upon the intellectual 

 part of our nature. Not to speak of its influence upon the generous 

 and noble dispositions of the mind, the passions are perverted by an 

 unlicensed association of ideas. Mr. Locke gives an example of this 

 tendency, in reference to the origin of superstitious fear a weakness 

 less prevalent in the present than in the past generation. He alludes 

 to the vulgar belief in ghosts as spirits of the night. " The ideas of 

 goblins and sprites have really BO more to do with darkness than with 

 light ; yet let but a foolish maid inculcate these often on the mind of a 

 child, and raise them there together, possibly he shall never be able to 

 separate them again as long as he lives ; but darkness shall ever after- 

 wards bring with it those frightful ideas, and they shall be so joined 

 that he can no more bear the one than the other.' 



To avoid this and other errors to which the mind is exposed by an 

 undisciplined use of the associating faculty, the greatest pains ought to 

 be taken to render it not only subordinate but obedient to reason ; to 

 place it under the guard of attention, and to fill the intellectual 

 storehouse with such ideas as shall only awaken pure and pleasing 

 associations. 



In relation to the phenomena of associations, it is worth}* of remark, 

 that we are indebted to modern philosophy for the development, if not 

 for the discovery, of them all. The original elucidation of the prin- 

 ciple is ascribed to Mr. Locke, who, in one of the later editions of his 

 ' Essay on the Human Understanding,' added a new chapter entitled 

 ' Of the Association of Ideas,' in which the laws of this power are 

 noticed and some of its phenomena explained. Soon after, Dr. Hartley, 

 in hit) ' Observations on Man,' investigated the principle more thoroughly, 

 and carried its application from simple ideas to the actions and affections, 

 tracing all the intellectual and moral phenomena up to this source. Mr. 

 Hume, in one of his ' Essays,' published almost contemporaneously, 

 ohowed that the three connecting principles of all ideas are the relations 

 of resemblance, contiguity, and causation, to which some subsequent 

 writer appended a fourth namely, contrast. In the works of these 

 philosophers is comprised all that is known in reference to the doctrine 

 of association, later writers having done little more than expand or 

 illustrate the views of their predecessors. 



ASSONANCE, amsonancia, in Spanish romantic and dramatic and in 

 several species of lyric poetry, is a peculiar correspondence in sound in 

 the termination of verses, less complete than that of rhyme. In rhyme 

 (called in Spanish consonancia) the vowel in the last accented syllable 

 and all the subsequent consonants and vowels are required to be the 

 same as in the co-rhyming verse ; but in assonance, though the vowels 

 of the last accented syllable and in all subsequent syllables are the 

 same, the consonants may and ought to be different. Thus, bdrbaro, 

 which has the accent on the antepenultima, is an assonant with cdlamo 

 and pltftano. Bfiscas, which is accented on the penultima, is an asso- 

 nant with cfiran and sya. (So, in English, hardy, m&nly, and carry, 

 would be assonants ; in German, token, hoffte, oder.) Corazon, which is 

 Accented on the last syllable, is assonant with amr, espahSl, flor, voz. 



Assonants are not, like rhymes, exhibited in insulated pairs, but are 

 continued through the whole poem, or, in dramatic compositions, 

 through an entire act or day (Jornada), without any other change than 

 the alternation of blank verse with the assonants. Thus, the first, 

 third, fifth, seventh lines, &c., of the act wo blank verse, and the 



second, fourth, sixth, and eighth lines, &c., are all assonants to each 

 other ; unless indeed the blank line and the assonanted line which 

 follows it be considered as constituting one long line, terminating with 

 an asmante, as in the Arabian prototype supposed to be discovered by 

 Sarmiento in some of the metrical parts of the Koran. 



But for this constant recurrence of the same assonance through a 

 long succession of alternate lines, the ear would probably be little 

 struck with this faint species of rhyme, even when proceeding from 

 the mouth of a Spaniard, in which the vowels are so fully and 

 broadly sounded, without being contracted by the use of double conso- 

 nants, which, while they add to the brilliancy of Italian versification, 

 appear to render it less susceptible of this delicate species of embel- 

 lishment, so peculiarly adapted to the use of the drama, for which 

 rhyme is perhaps too prominent, and too ostentatious an ornament. 



Calder6n, and the other classical dramatists of Spain, always use 

 asonantts. The asonante of the drama is that in which the accent is 

 on the penultima, the verse consisting of eight syllables. 



In lyric poetry, rhyme is more frequently adopted ; but the endecha, 

 a species of elegy, and some other lyric measures, require the assonant. 

 The following extracts from romances contain lines alternately blank 

 and assonanted, as is always the case in romantic and in dramatic poetry. 

 In the first of these examples the accent is on the penultima ; in the 

 second, on the last syllable : 



Salio el gallardo Aliatar 

 Con cien Moriscos pUlardos 

 En defensa de Motril 

 Y eocorro de su hermano. 



A caballo salio el Moro, 

 Y otro dia desdichado 

 En negras andas le vuelven 

 For donde sali6 a caballo. 



Maldecire mi hcrmosura, 

 Y tambien mi mocedad, 

 Maldecire el tristc din 

 Que con vcs quise casnr. 



The next is an example of double assonants : 



Aguardate, dixo el pavo 

 Al cucrvo de Icjos. 

 i Sabes lo que cstoi pensando ! 

 Que eres negro y feo. 



Escucha ; tambien reparo, 

 Le grito mas ricio, 

 En que ercs un puxarraco 

 De nmi mal aguero. 



friarlc. 



ASSUMPSIT is the technical term denoting one of those specific 

 forms of action which were provided, at a very early period of the 

 history of English law, as the course by which redress for particular 

 injuries must be pursued. It was so called from the past tense of the 

 Latin word aisumo, barbarously applied to signify ' I undertake ; ' 

 being taken from the use of this word, describing the defendant's 

 undertaking, in the old Latin pleadings. The form was " that in con- 

 sideration that the plaintiff had furnished goods to the defendant, the 

 latter undertook, or rather took upon himself (giqier ee assumpsit) to 

 pay the former so much money." The action of inddntatus assumptit 

 was used for the recovery of damages occasioned by the breach of a 

 simple contract ; being preferred to the more proper action of debt, 

 for technical reasons, which have long ceased to operate. Assumptit is 

 maintainable where there has been an express promise to pay money 

 (as in the case of a promissory note), or to do any other act ; or in cir- 

 cumstances from which the law implies a contract. An example of the 

 latter occurs in the familiar instance of the delivery of goods by a 

 tradesman to a customer ; in which case, though no express promise to 

 that effect has been made, it is an inference of law that the customer 

 has promised to pay for them as much as they are worth ; and, 

 accordingly, the plaintiff's declaration, or formal relation of his cause 

 of action, would state the debt generally, and also an actual promise 

 to pay it. This would be called an assumpsit on a quantum valebant. 

 If the consideration were the personal services of the plaintiff, given 

 for the benefit of the employer, the latter is supposed to promise to 

 pay as much as the plaintiff ' reasonably deserved to have ; ' and then 

 the action is called an assumpsit upon a quantum meriiit. So also 

 the character and relative situations of parties will often raise a legal 

 liability, from which an assumpsit or undertaking will be implied in 

 the absence of any express contract. Thus, an innkeeper is bound 

 to secure the goods of his guests; the law consequently supposes 

 him to promise to do so ; and therefore if the goods are lost or 

 injured, he is liable to an action of assumptit for the damage which 

 the owner has sustained. In like manner, it is the duty of surgeons 

 and attorneys to use proper care and skill in the service of those 

 who employ them, and being supposed to promise to do so, they are 

 liable to be called upon in an action of assumpsit to make compen- 

 sation in damages for any negligence or want of skill. 



(Blackst.' Comm.' Mr. Kerr's ed. viii. pp. 165 173, and 368.) 

 ASSURANCE. Of late years it has become usual with writers on 



