PHILOSOPHY, MENTAL. 



other wish to break. While they teach 

 us to be assiduously careful to prevent all 

 such, they also shew us that those which 

 we must wish to cherish may, as well as 

 others of a contrary character, become 

 invincible ; and while they direct those 

 who have the care of the young careful- 

 ly to cultivate those tendencies to feeling 

 and action, that is, those associations 

 which may serve as a check upon impro- 

 per associations, while they direct them 

 carefully to prevent those which may ac- 

 quire a despotic rule in the mind, to the 

 destruction of peace and virtue, they also 

 diminish the anxiety which we are some- 

 times prone to feel, when we find our- 

 selves unable to mould them exactly to 

 that standard of thought and feeling 

 which we wish. 



37. It may be well to enlarge a little 

 here. Numerous are the associations, 

 particularly of a speculative nature, 

 which yield to the influence of time and 

 change of circumstances. In many in- 

 stances the destruction of the association 

 depends upon the efforts of the individu- 

 al ; but in the greater number it is occa- 

 sioned without his direct efforts, by the 

 increase of his knowledge, by circum- 

 stances preventing the recurrence of the 

 association, or by the formation of con- 

 trary associations upon more solid 

 grounds. But that they may be broken 

 should never be allowed as a reason for 

 the formation of improper associations ; 

 for the difficulty is frequently great, in 

 many instances insuperable, except by 

 such discipline, such peculiar concurren- 

 ces of circumstances as fall not to the lot 

 of every individual. The association be- 

 tween certain motives and that state of 

 mind which we call volition, formed in 

 early life, and strengthened by frequent 

 repetition, is frequently found so indisso- 

 luble, that it leads the unhappy individual 

 to act against his better judgment, and 

 the destruction of his corporeal, and even 

 of his mental energies, produced by his 

 conduct, prevents those exertions for his 

 release which he wishes to make, but has 

 not the power to attempt. In every 

 mind, more or less, circumstances gene- 

 rate desires and passions, these generate 

 volition, and volition produces action. 

 How few are there who have attained the 

 power of voluntarily separating passion 

 or volition, or rendering them less con- 

 nected ; or of repressing those passions 

 which were previously invariably con- 

 nected with the circumstances which 

 gave them origin. In all men the train 

 of thought is partly involuntary: how 



few are there who are capable of direct- 

 ing their associations into one channel by 

 the exertion of volition, and employing 

 them in one definite way; of destroying 

 improper associations, and of forming 

 new ones, actuated by a view to the 

 claims of duty, and to their improvement 

 in wisdom and virtue. How frequently 

 do we see others (and self-knowledge 

 will shew us repeated instances which 

 come home to our own bosoms) in 

 situations where they act against their 

 better judgment, a situation which is so 

 forcibly described by the apostle, " for 

 that which I do, I allow not ; for what I 

 would, that I do not ; but what I hate, 

 that I do." This we can easily account 

 for upon the principles of association. 

 He who is in such a situation, may be 

 convinced that certain actions are wrong, 

 that they will infallibly injure his future 

 happiness, that they must imbitter his 

 present enjoyment :" but his conviction 

 comes too late. The object which pro- 

 mises the gratification of some or other of 

 his powerful principles of action, presents 

 itself to his mind ; it strongly prompts his 

 desires or his passions ; the association 

 between these and volition, is perhaps of 

 very long standing, confirmed by repeat- 

 ed exercise, not counteracted, or but 

 weakly, by any contrary associations, or 

 by any exertion of the individual ; it is 

 impossible to overcome it, or at least, it 

 can be overcome with extreme difficulty; 

 the mind sinks under the trial, and the 

 commission of the action tends to 

 strengthen the association, to render the 

 mind still more the slave of vice and mi- 

 sery. The picture unhappily is not too 

 highly drawn ; and though the habit may 

 not be so deeply fraught with unhappi- 

 ness, few are those who can say that they 

 have not one confirmed habit which they 

 would wish to change, or at least to 

 weaken. If these have made the attempt 

 to destroy the connection between de- 

 sire and volition, the difficulties cannot 

 have appeared trifling. 



3. Law of Transference. 



38. We now proceed to state and to 

 explain that important law of associa- 

 tion, agreeably to which associations are 

 formed by means of intermediate links. 

 We must here request our readers to 

 bear in mind, that we use the word idea 

 in the wide sense in which it is employed 

 by Hartley, to denote every internal feel- 

 ing except sensation, whether simple or 

 compound, whether or not accompanied 



