SAYINGS RECALLED BY SIMILARITY. 469 are many instances of recurring likeness in the midst of unlikeness, leading to the revival of the past by the present. We are constantly recalling past sayings of our own and of other people, and passages of writings that we have read, by hitting on catch-words or identical phrases when our thoughts are running in some quite different channel. The single word 'phrenzy' uttered with emphasis will recall, in a mind familiar with the passage, 'The poet's eye in a fine phrenzy rolling;' the principal epithet in such a case being enough to reinstate the entire connected train. Through the suggestion of common words, we can thus leap from one passage to another, by the remotest fetches, in an endless succession of recollections. The character of the mind will determine the prevailing character of the revived sayings; in one mind, they will be poetical and ornate; in another, the preference will be for prose melody; in a third, epigram and wit; in a fourth, sententious wisdom and prudential saws. The sayings and passages that have been impressed upon us, in the course of our education, will come up through the medium of common phrases; and the general power of similarity in the mind, modified by the quality of the Articulate sensibility in particular, will determine the abundance of this class of revivals, in other words, the quantity of speech flowing into the utterance of the individual. The force of Contiguity strings together in the mind words that have been uttered together; the force of Similarity brings forward recollections from different times and circumstances and connexions, and makes a new train out of many old ones. I may have learnt, at one time, a passage from Milton, at another, an extract from Pope, on a third occasion, a piece from Campbell; mere contiguity would enable me when reminded of the commencing words of any of these passages to repeat the whole; but the energetic working of similarity causes me to break into any one or all of them, while speaking on some remote subject. I chance to fall upon two or three words resembling an expression in one of the pieces; and, notwithstanding the diversity of the context, the old stream of recollection is re-constituted, and the entire passage brought within my command. The attraction of sameness is here manifested as overcoming the repulsion of diversity. I am uttering a connected series of words, and among these, one, two, or three have by chance the echo of one of the falls of an old utterance; instantly I feel myself plunged in the entire current of the past, and may avail myself of any portion of it to serve my present end in speaking. Neither the unlikeness of the context, nor the totally foreign nature of the subject matter, will stifle the reviving action in a mind very much alive to articulate effects. As Contiguous adhesiveness is measured by the fewness of repetitions necessary to fix a connected speech in the memory, Similarity is measured by the amount of repulsion and disparity that can be overcome, in bringing an old train forward by the force of a new one. Unlikeness of circumstances and situations is no bar to the revival of past expressions, any more than difference of verbal context and subject matter. A word casually spoken in some present emergency, will often revive a stream of recollections and incidents long past, where that word chanced to figure as an important turning point of the history. It is hardly possible to fall into the phrase 'every man to do his duty,' without being put on the track of our recollection of Nelson's last victory. So the word 'duty' is liable at any time to bring up the Duke of Wellington. These verbal coincidences are one great link of connexion between us and our past experiences; they put us ever and anon upon the track of some bygone incident in our history. And the more alive we are to the influence of words, the larger is the share of reviving efficacy that belongs to them. The hold that we have of language is not confined to the articulate organs, but extends over the senses of hearing and sight, and is besides influenced by the emotions; and we shall therefore have to recur to the topic on various occasions. The importance of language in the operations of intellect generally, justifies a frequent reference to it. CONDITION SPECIAL TO SIMILARITY IN DIVERSITY. 471 Besides the general power of Similarity, all the special or local conditions of revival under Feebleness apply to revival under diversity-(1) acuteness of sense, (2) previous familiarity, (3) acquired delicacy or habits of attention; and to these a fourth has now to be added. In the case of a present object bringing up a past, both resembling it, and also differing from it, there is obviously a struggle or contest of attracting similarities. In the example now givenlanguage-a certain passage before the mind may bring up, from the past, another passage resembling in expression, but differing in sense; or a passage resembling in sense, but differing in expression: this shows that both peculiarities have a power of attraction, each for its own kind, although one prevails, and is thereupon called the stronger attraction. ABC is liable to bring up ADE, the likeness being struck on A; or BFG, on the likeness of B; or CHI, on the likeness of C. The attraction of B for some combination where it enters, and of C for a combination where it enters, have to be overcome by A, in order to secure the recovery of ADE. Now, the less active B and C are, the more easily will A predominate and effect the recall; that is, if all the local conditions above specified are of a low order as respects B and C, while the same conditions are well developed in A, the chances in favour of A are proportionally great. Hence, the additional circumstance applicable to Similarity in Diversity is (4) a low susceptibility, or comparative insensibility, to the points of difference. A speech will recall by preference other speeches resembling in diction, if the individual is more highly susceptible to language, than to meaning or subjectmatter. 15. To pass to the Sensations. In Organic Life, there are many cases of a sensation repeated with new admixtures, serving to disguise its character, and to prevent its recalling the former instances of the same impressions. It often happens that the same organic state is produced by very different causes. A shock of grief, a glut of pleasure, a fit of overworking, an accidental loss of two or three nights' rest, may all end in the very same kind of headache, stupor, or feeling of discomfort; but the great difference in the antecedents may prevent our identifying the occasions. The derangement caused by grief is more likely to recall a previous occasion of a similar grief, than to suggest a time of overdone enjoyment; the sameness in organic state is, in the case of such a parallel, nullified by the repulsion of opposites in the accompanying circumstances; a state of grief does not permit a time of pleasure to be recalled and dwelt upon; the loss of a parent at home is not compatible with the remembrance of a long night of gaiety abroad. Hence we do not identify the supposed state of organic depression with all the previous recurrences of the same state; unless, indeed, a scientific education has made us aware of the sameness of the physical effects resulting from the most dissimilar causes. 16. Under Taste, we have examples of a like nature. A taste may be so disguised by mixture as to be undiscernible; the presence of the other ingredients operating to resist the reviving power of the one that we desire to identify. In a solution of Epsom salts, we should not be able to discern a small quantity of sugar; the saline bitter of the salts overpowering the sugary taste. Again, when malt liquor becomes sour, we are unable to discriminate any longer the alcoholic taste; the acid taste overcomes every other sensation. If, in such a case, the alcohol is still discernible by any one person, when others fail to perceive it, we should say that such an one's memory had been specially impressed by alcohol. 17. Hitherto I have spoken of sensations identified through actual sameness, the identification being impeded only by others mixed up with them. A case of greater complicacy and more importance is furnished by the existence of sensations really different, but having something in common that cannot be seized by itself. Take as an instance the tastes of the various wines; these are all different, and if similarity acted only in absolute sameness, port would remind us only of port, claret of claret, madeira of madeira, and so on. But we TASTES IDENTIFIED-CLASSIFICATION. 473 find that there is so much of a common influence in all wines, that any of them can remind us of a great many others; we, at the same time, noting points of difference, when they are thus brought into comparison. It is this common influence, with its suggesting power, that has led mankind to constitute what is termed a class, or a genus, 'wine,' comprehending many widely-scattered individuals. The identification of likeness in the midst of unlikeness, in other words, of a common property, is the essence of this classifying operation. A class is distinct from a catalogue by virtue of a common resemblance, in the midst of diversity. Again, the class, wines,' identified through their common. organic sensation and taste, is merged in a larger class when spirituous liquors come to be known. There is felt to be an identity between the principal effect of these liquors on the system, and the effect of the various members of the vinous group. The class is now extended; yet, because of there being some features common to wines that do not attach to spirits, the wines are still retained in a group apart, subordinate to the larger group, or as a species coming under the other as a genus. The addition of malt liquors to the comparison extends the identity still farther, and enlarges the class of substances that suggest one another through the common quality of causing intoxication. These malt liquors. being themselves identical in more points than those common to them with wines and distilled spirits, they also make a small species by themselves, contained in the comprehensive genus of intoxicating drinks. It was not discovered at first that this influence, common to so many substances derived from such various natural sources (the grape, the sugar-cane, barley, oats, rice, &c.), was owing to one sole ingredient occurring under various combinations. The identification had proceeded solely on their common influence on the human system, and not from a knowledge of the common element, alcohol. Had the grouping proceeded on this perception, the case would have been exactly like those above described, where |