12 



annex pleasure to these things. Hence these things and pleas- 

 ure are so tied together and associated in our minds that one 

 cannot present itself but the other will also occur. And the 

 association remains even after that which at first gave them 

 the connection is quite forgotten or perhaps does not exist, or 

 the contrary." 1 Consequently we are mistaken when we 

 speak of an innate moral sense. What we commonly under- 

 stand as the moral sense is but the result of association of ideas 

 which are acquired ' 'either from our own observation or imita- 

 tion of others". 2 



6. DAVID HARTLEY. 



Gay's essay was the stimulus which gave rise to the work 

 of David Hartley. The latter indicates his relation to Gay in 

 the following words: "About eighteen years ago I was in- 

 formed that the Rev. Mr. Gay, then living, asserted the possi- 

 bility of deducing all our intellectual pleasures and pains from 

 association. This put me upon considering the power of 

 association.' ' 3 



Hartley's relation to Newton is made evident in the following 

 statement: ' 'My chief design * * is to explain, establish and 

 apply the doctrines of vibrations and association. The first 

 of these doctrines is taken from the hints concerning the per- 

 formance of sensation and emotion which Sir Isaac Newton has 

 given at the end of his Trincipia' and in the questions annexed 

 to his 'Optics'; the last from what Mr. Locke and other 

 ingenious persons since his time have told concerning the 

 influence of association over our opinions and affections, 

 and its use in explaining those things in an accurate and 

 precise way, which are commonly referred to the power of 

 habit and custom, in a general and indeterminate one.' ' 4 



"The doctrine of vibrations may appear at first sight to 

 have no connection with that of association ; however, if these 

 doctrines be found in fact to contain the laws of the bodily and 

 mental powers respectively, they must be related to each other, 

 since the body and mind are. One may expect that vibrations 

 should infer association as their effect, and association point to 

 vibrations as its cause. I will endeavour, in the present chapter 

 to trace out this mutual relation.' ' 5 



O.C. pp. 30-31. 



2 O.C. p. 33. 



3 David Hartley, "Observations on Man", 4th ed. 1801, preface, p. iii. 



4 O.C. p. 5. 



6 O.C. p. 6. 



