518 EQUILIBRATION. 



having a relative strength that answers to the relative con- 

 stancy of the physical connection represented. In conform- 

 ity with the general law that motion pursues the line of 

 least resistance, and that, other things equal, a line once 

 taken by motion is made a line that will be more readily 

 pursued by future motion; we have seen that the ease with 

 which nervous impressions follow one another, is, other 

 things equal, great in proportion to the number of times 

 they have been repeated together in experience. Hence, 

 corresponding to such an invariable relation as that between 

 the resistance of an object and some extension possessed 

 by it, there arises an indissoluble connection in conscious- 

 ness; and this connection, being as absolute internally as the 

 answering one is externally, undergoes no further change — 

 the inner relation is in perfect equilibrium with the outer 

 relation. Conversely, it hence happens that to such uncer- 

 tain relations of phenomena as that between clouds and rain, 

 there arise relations of ideas of a like uncertainty; and if, 

 under given aspects of the sky, the tendencies to infer fair 

 or foul weather, correspond to the frequencies with which 

 fair or foul weather follow such aspects, the accumulation of 

 experiences has balanced the mental sequences and the 

 physical sequences. When it is remembered that between 

 these extremes there are countless orders of external connec- 

 tions having different degrees of constancy, and that during 

 the evolution of intelligence there arise answering internal 

 associations having different degrees of cohesion; it will be 

 seen that there is a progress towards equilibrium between 

 the relations of thought and the relations of things. This 

 equilibration can end only when each relation of things 

 has generated in us a relation of thought, such that on the 

 occurrence of the conditions, the relation in thought arises 

 as certainly as the relation in things. Supposing this state 

 to be reached (which however it can be only in infinite time) 

 experience will cease to produce any further mental evolu- 

 tion — there will have been reached a perfect correspondence 



