the language that accompanied that other when formerly present to the mind, there is so much the more chance of the revival taking place.

MIXED CONTIGUITY AND SIMILARITY.

9. Under this head, there are several interesting examples. If any one, in describing a storm, employ the phrase 'a war of elements,' the metaphor has been brought to mind partly by similitude, but partly also by contiguity, seeing that the comparison has already been made. The person that first used the phrase came upon it by similarity; he that used it next had contiguity to assist him; and, after frequent repetition, the bond of contiguity may be so well confirmed, that the force of similarity is entirely superseded. In this way, many things that were originally strokes of genius, end in being efforts of mere adhesive recollection; while, for a time previous to this final consummation, there is a mixed effort of the two suggesting forces. Hence Johnson's remark on the poet Ogilvie, that his poem contained what was once imagination, but in him had come to be memory.*

In all regions of intellectual exertion-industry, science, art, literature—there is a kind of ability displayed in taking up great and original ideas and combinations, before they have been made easy by iteration. Minds unable for the highest efforts of origination may yet be equal to this second degree of genius, wherein a considerable force of similarity is assisted by a small thread of contiguity. To master a large multitude of the discoveries of identification, a power of similarity short of the original force that gave birth to them,

* 'On Tuesday, the 5th July (1763), I again visited Johnson. He told me he had now looked into the poems of a pretty voluminous writer, Mr. (now Dr.) John Ogilvie, one of the Presbyterian ministers of Scotland, which had lately come out, but could find nothing in them.

'BOSWELL. Is there not imagination in them, Sir?

'JOHNSON. Why, Sir, there is in them, what was imagination, but it is no more imagination in him, than sound is sound in the echo. And his diction, too, is not his own. We have long ago seen white-robed innocence, and flower-bespangled meads.'

PROXIMITY OF SUBJECT AN AID TO SIMILARITY.

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is aided by the contiguous bond that has grown up, during a certain number of repetitions of each.

10. A second case is, when a similarity is struck out in circumstances such as to bring the absent object into near proximity in some contiguous train. Thus, a poet falls upon

a beautiful metaphor, while dwelling in the region where the material of the simile occurs. In the country, rural comparisons are most easily made; on ship-board, nautical metaphors are naturally abundant.

If we chance to be studying by turns two different sciences that throw much light on each other, we are in the best position for deriving the benefit of the comparison. When we know the most likely source of fertile similitudes for some difficult problem, we naturally keep near that source, in order that we may be struck with the faintest gleam of likeness, through the help of proximity. A historian of the ancient republics cultivates a familiarity with all the living instances of the republican system. Now that physical science is largely indebted to mathematical handling, the physicist has to maintain his freshness in mathematics. It is not safe to trust to an acquisition of old date, however pertinacious the mind be in retaining the subject in question. The great discoveries of identification that astonish the world and open up new vistas of knowledge, have doubtless often been helped by the accidental proximity of the things made to flash together. For illustration's sake, we might suppose Newton in the act of meditating upon the planetary attraction, at the time that the celebrated apple fell to the ground before his eyes; a proximity so very close would powerfully aid in bringing on the stroke of identification.*

* Dr. Pick, a public lecturer on Mnemonics, has suggested an aid to verbal memory, founded on mixed contiguity and similarity. If we are learning a string of unconnected names, we must trust to contiguous growth solely; but, if it be allowable to arrange them at pleasure, Dr. Pick suggests that we should find out an order, such that each word shall have in it something in common with the following, or some pre-established connexion of meaning. Thus, he takes the French irregular verbs, and arranges them

THE ELEMENT OF FEELING.

11. We have already seen, under Contiguity, that associations grow up between objects and emotional states, whereby the one can recall the other-the object reviving the emotion, and the emotion the object. Anything, for example, that has been strongly associated with a disgust, is apt to recall the feeling at a future time.

This bond may be found entering into composite associations. In remembering some past object that has been linked in the mind with a certain emotion, the presence of the emotion will contribute to the recall. Athough not always sufficient of itself, this vinculum will often be found cooperating with others to effect the revival of an old recollection. While luxuriating in a state of agreeable warmth, we are easily reminded of former situations and circumstances where we were under the same feeling.

When the mind is immersed in any of the special emotions, as Terror, Anger, Tenderness, Beauty, objects connected with the emotion are attracted, while all others are repelled. In moods of tenderness, objects of affection rise by preference. If the mind is disposed to indulge in the irascible emotion, objects of anger and hatred find an easy opening, while others are shut out, although strongly suggested by other links of association. Something occurs to remind a person of a good deed performed to him by the object of his wrath; but the recollection is not harboured. When an emotion possesses the mind in anything like fury, nothing that discords with it can find a place, while the feeblest link of connexion is sufficient to recall circumstances in harmony with the dominant state.

in the following series :-(I give the English) sew, sit down, move, go, go away, send, follow, run, shun, &c. The previous connexion between the actions expressed by 'sew' and 'sit down' is obviously a powerful addition to the link of mere contiguity in utterance. Alphabetical arrangement (or Alliteration) gives a similar aid, although not so efficacious as the close alliance of meaning that occurs in the above series.

EMOTIONAL ASSOCIATIONS AID REPRODUCTION.

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12. Hence in minds very susceptible to emotion, the more purely intellectual bonds of association are perpetually combined and modified by connexions with feeling. The entire current of thought and recollection is thus impressed with a character derived from emotion. When tender affection is indulged as a dominant feeling, the objects that rise from the past, no less than those engaging the attention in the present, are for the most part tinged with this feeling. A joyous temperament has its genial recollections; melancholy opens the door to a totally different class. The egotist is eager for any suggestions that connect themselves with self, and a slight contiguity or similarity will suffice to make these present. Poetic emotion, gaining possession of the mind, gives a select character to the images that recur from the past. A strong natural feeling of reverence accumulates a store of ideas of things venerable, and gives them precedence in the resurrection of thought.

This peculiarity has often arrested attention, and has been adopted as a theme both by poets and by philosophers. An intellectual and cultivated nature strives to maintain the ascendency of the intellectual associations over the suggestions of emotions. The dominion of reason is another expression for the same fact.

When a particular emotion is excessive in the character, not only can we readily predict the actions, we can almost read the thoughts of the individual. The anecdote of Burke's divination of the thoughts of Goldsmith, when passing a crowd collected by the feats of a mountebank, can scarcely be called extravagant as an illustration in point.

INFLUENCE OF VOLITION.

13. In many cases our recollection of the past is promoted by Volition; that is, we have some purpose or end in view which stimulates the activity of the system to bring about the recovery. I wish to recall the name of an object before me, to remember where I last saw a given person, to find a principle applicable to a case in hand. For a time, I fail in

my endeavour, but, by prolonged effort, I effect the desired

recovery.

It is interesting to ascertain in what way the power of the will combines with the intellectual forces of reproduction. At what point does this influence operate? Can it augment a contiguous adhesiveness too feeble, or the attraction of a similarity too little marked?

The influence is indirect. There is no power of adding to the energy of the associating bond either of contiguity or of similarity, by a voluntary effort. The reproductions of the intellect are withdrawn from the control of volition. One thought cannot be made to succeed another, by mere will, as one movement of a limb may be made to succeed another. The modes of interference of a volition are as follows:

(1.) In exciting the nervous system, so as to exalt the intensity of the mental processes. It is the nature of an end strongly felt, to stimulate and excite the whole frame of body and mind. Difficulty adds fuel to the flame. Under excitement, within bounds, everything we do is done with more vigour. The bodily efforts are stronger, the senses are more alive, the volitions are more intense, and the intellect shares in the stimulation.

(2.) Volition may govern intellectual attention, in the same manner as observation is influenced by our will. When many things are before the eye, some are observed, and the rest passed by. A strong liking for one object of the scene stimulates the movements that turn the gaze in that direction; as when an infant bends its eyes to the flame of a candle or to a familiar face. Now, I have already maintained a lengthened argument to show that, in the recovery of objects as ideas, when they are no longer present as realities, the same nervous circles and the same organs of sense and movement are occupied, that were occupied in the original perception during the actual presence. The ideal picture of a building is a series of impressions, sustained in the optic and the moving apparatus of the eye, and in the circles of the brain actuated at the time when we were gazing on the