II THE CONTENTS OF THE MIND 83 



"Amongst the effects of this union or association of 

 ideas there are none more remarkable than those complex 

 ideas which are the common subjects of our thought and 

 reasoning, and generally arise from some principle of union 

 among our simple ideas. These complex ideas may be re- 

 solved into relations, modes, and substances" (Ibid.) 



In the next section, which is devoted to 

 Relations, they are spoken of as qualities " by 

 which two ideas are connected together in the 

 imagination," or " which make objects admit of 

 comparison," and seven kinds of relation are 

 enumerated, namely, resemblance, identity, space 

 and time, quantity or number, degrees of quality, 

 contrariety, and cause and effect. 



To the reader of Hume, whose conceptions are 

 usually so clear, definite, and consistent, it is as 

 unsatisfactory as it is surprising to meet with so 

 much questionable and obscure phraseology in a 

 small space. One and the same thing, for 

 example, resemblance, is first called a " quality 

 of an idea," and secondly a " complex idea." 

 Surely it cannot be both. Ideas which have the 

 qualities of " resemblance, contiguity, and cause 

 and effect," are said to " attract one another" 

 (save the mark!), and so become associated; 

 though, in a subsequent part of the "Treatise," 

 Hume's great effort is to prove that the relation 

 of cause and effect is a particular case of the 

 process of association; that is to say, is a result 

 of the process of which it is supposed to be the 

 cause. Moreover, since, as Hume is never weary 

 149 



