ASSOCIATION. 579 



case. There is no tendency on the part of simple ' ideas,' attri- 

 butes, or qualities to remind us of their like. The thought of 

 one shade of blue does not remind us of that of another 

 shade of blue, etc., unless indeed we have in mind some 

 general purpose like naming the tint, when we should 

 naturally think of other blues of the scale, through ' mixed 

 association' of purj)ose, names, and tints, together. But 

 there i^ no elementary tendency of pure qualities to awaken 

 their similars in the mind. 



We saw in the chapter on Discrimination that two com- 

 pound things are similar when some one quality or group 

 of qualities is shared alike by both, although as regards 

 their other qualities they may have nothing in common. 

 The moon is similar to a gas-jet, it is also similar to a foot- 

 ball ; but a gas-jet and a foot-ball are not similar to each 

 other. When we affirm the similarity of two compound 

 things, we should always say in what respect it obtains. 

 Moon and gas-jet are similar in respect of luminosity, 

 and nothing else ; moon and foot-ball in respect of ro- 

 tundity, and nothing else. Foot-ball and gas-jet are 

 in no respect similar — that is, they possess no common 

 point, no identical attribute. Similarity, in compounds, is 

 partial identity. When the same attribute appears in two 

 phenomena, though it be their only common property, the 

 two phenomena are similar in so far forth. To return now 

 to our associated representations. If the thought of the 

 moon is succeeded by the thought of a foot-ball, and that 

 by the thought of one of Mr. X's railroads, it is because 

 the attribute rotundity in the moon broke away from all the 

 rest and surrounded itself with an entirely new set of com- 

 panions — elasticity, leathery integument, swift mobility in 

 obedience to human caprice, etc. ; and because the last- 

 named attribute in the foot-ball in turn broke away from its 

 companions, and, itself persisting, surrounded itself with 

 such new attributes as make up the notions of a ' railroad 

 king,' of a rising and falling stock-market, and the like. 



The gradual passage from impartial redintegration to 

 similar association through what we have called ordinary 

 mixed association may be symbolized by diagrams. Fig. 

 41 is impartial redintegration, Fig. 42 is mixed, and Fig. 43 



