have a conception of the pain which they are fitted to occasion. And, on the contrary, the sight of a wound, inflicted however long before, suggests to us the idea of the instrument by which it was made. Mr. Locke relates an incident, which illustrates the statements made here, of a man who was restored from a state of insanity. by means of a harsh and exceedingly painful operation. "The gentleman who was thus recovered, with great sense of gratitude and acknowledgment, owned the cure all his life after, as the greatest obligation he could have received; but, whatever gratitude and reason suggested to him, he could never bear the sight of the operator; that image brought back with it the idea of that agony which he suffered from his hands, which was too mighty and intolerable for him to endure."-The operation of the law of Cause and Effect, in the production of new associations, seems to be involved in the following characteristic passage of Shakspeare, Henry IV., 2d pt., act i.: "Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news Hath but a losing office; and his tongue Sounds ever after as a sullen bell, Remember'd knolling a departed friend." CHAPTER VI. ASSOCIATION. (II.) SECONDARY LAWs. Nor.4. § 147. Secondary laws, and their connexion with the primary. THE subject of Association is not exhausted in the enumeration and explanation of its Laws which has thus far been given. Besides the PRIMARY LAWS, which have fallen under our consideration, there are certain marked and prominent circumstances, which are found to exert, in a greater or less degree, a modifying and controlling influence over the more general principles. As this influence is of a permanent character, and not merely accidental and temporary, the grounds or sources of it are called, by way of distinction, SECONDARY LAWS.-These are four in number, viz., lapse of Time, degree of co-existent Feel ing, repetition or Habit, and original or constitutional Difference in character. It must at once be obvious, that these principles, although holding a subordinate rank, give an increased range and power to the PRIMARY laws. It is not to be inferred from the epithet by which they are distinguished, that they are, therefore, of a very minor and inconsiderable importance. On the contrary, human nature without them, as far as we are capable of judging, would have assumed a sort of fixed and inflexible form, instead of presenting those pleasing and almost endless diversities it now does. The primary laws are the great national roads along which the mind holds its course; the secondary are those cross-roads that intersect them from time to time, and thus afford an entrance into, and a communication with, the surrounding country; and yet all have a connexion with each other; and with all their turnings and intersections, concur at last in the ultimate destination. § 148. Of the influence of lapse of time. The first of the four secondary laws which we shall consider, is LAPSE OF TIME. Stated more particularly, the law is this: Our trains of thought and emotion are more or less strongly connected and likely to be restored, according as the lapse of time has been greater or less. Perhaps no lapse of time, however great, will utterly break the chain of human thought, and cause an entire inability of restoring our former experiences; but it appears evident from observation, as much so as observation renders evident in almost any case, that every additional moment of intervening time weakens, if it do not break and sunder, the bond that connects the present with the past, and diminishes the probability of such a restoration. We remember many incidents, even of a trifling nature, which occurred to-day, or the present week, while those of yesterday or of last week are forgotten. But if the increased period of months and years throws itself between the present time and the date of our past experiences, our ancient joys, regrets, and sufferings, then how unfrequent is their recurrence, and how weak and shadowy they appear! Increase the lapse of time a little further, and a dark cloud rests on that portion of our history; less substantial than a dream, it utterly eludes our search, and becomes to us as if it never had been. There is, however, an apparent exception to this law which should be mentioned. The associated feelings of old men, which were formed in their youth and the early part of manhood, are more readily revived than those of later origin. On this state of things in old men, two remarks are to be made. The FIRST is, that the law under consideration fully and unfailingly maintains itself in the case of aged persons, whenever the time is not extended far back. Events which happened but a few hours before are remembered, while there is an utter forgetfulness of those which happened a few weeks or even days before. So far as this, the law operates in old men precisely as in others. The SECOND remark is, that the failure of its operation in respect to the events of youth, is caused, not by an actual inability in the secondary law before us, to blot out and diminish here as in other cases, but by the greater power of the combined action of two other laws, viz., Co-existent feeling, and Repetition or habit. early life, as a general statement, was the most deeply interesting, and is the most frequently recurred to; and in this way its recollections become so incorporated with the mind as to hold a sort of precedence over our more recent experiences, and thrust them from their proper place. 149. Secondary law of repetition or habit. Our Another secondary law is REPETITION; in other words, successions of thought are the more readily suggested in proportion as they are the more frequently renewed. If we experience a feeling once, and only once, we find it difficult to recall it after it has gone from us; but repeated experience increases the probability of its recurring. Every schoolboy who is required to commit to memory, puts this law to the test, and proves it. Having read a sentence a number of times, he finds himself able to repeat it out of book, which he could not do with merely reading it once. The operation of this law is seen constantly in particlar arts and professions. If men be especially trained up to certain trades, arts, or sciences, their associations on those particular subjects, and on everything connected with them, are found to be prompt and decisive. We can but seldom detect any hesitancy or mistake within the circle where their minds have been accustomed to operate, because every thought and process have been recalled and repeated thousands of times. With almost everything they see or hear, there is a train of reflection, connecting it with their peculiar calling, and bringing it within the beaten and consecrated circle. Every hour, unless they guard against it, hastens the process which threatens to cut them off, and insulate them from the great interests of humanity, and to make them wholly professional. "Still o'er those scenes their memory wakes, And fondly broods with miser care; As streams their channels deeper wear." 150. Of the secondary law of co-existent emotion. A third secondary law is co-EXISTENT EMOTION.—It may be stated in other words as follows: The probability that our mental states will be recalled by the general laws, will in part depend on the depth of feeling, the degree of interest, which accompanied the original experience of them. Why are bright objects more readily recalled than faint or obscure? It is not merely because they occupied more distinctly our perception, but because they more engaged our attention and interested us, the natural consequence of that greater distinctness. Why do those events in our personal history, which were accompanied with great joys and sorrows, stand out like pyramids in our past life, distinct to the eye, and immoveable in their position, while others have been swept away and cannot be found? Merely because there were joy and sorrow in the one case, and not at all, or only in a slight degree, in the other; because the sensitive part of our nature combined itself with the intellectual; the Heart gave activity to the operations of the Understanding. We learn from the Bible that the Jews, in their state of exile, could not forget Jerusalem, the beloved and How did it happen beautiful City. And why not? that, in their Captivity, they sat down by the rivers of Babylon, wept when they remembered Žion, and hung their harps on the willows? It was because Jerusalem was not only an object of thought, but of feeling. They had not only known her gates and fountains, her pleasant dwelling-places and temples, but had loved them. The Holy City was not a lifeless abstraction of the head; but a sacred and delightful image, engraven in the heart. And hence it was, that, in their solitude and sorrow, she arose before them so distinctly, "The morning star of memory." § 151. Original difference in the mental constitution. The fourth and last secondary law of association is ORIGINAL DIFFERENCE IN THE MENTAL CONSTITUTION.-This Law, it will be noticed, is expressed in the most general terms; and is to be considered, therefore, as applicable both to the Intellectual and the Sensitive part of man. It requires, accordingly, to be contemplated in two distinct points of view. The law of original difference in the mental constitution is applicable, in the FIRST place, to the Intellect, properly and distinctively so called; in other words, to the comparing, judging, and reasoning part of the soul. That there are differences in men intellectually, it is presumed will hardly be doubted, although this difference is perceptible in different degrees, and in some cases hardly perceptible at all. And these original or constitutional peculiarities reach and affect the associating principle, as well as other departments of intellectual action. The associations of the great mass of mankind (perhaps it may be entirely owing in some cases to the accidental circumstance of a want of education and intellectual developement) appear to run exclusively in the channel of Contiguity in time and place. They contemplate objects in their nearness and distance, in their familiar and outward exhibitions, without examining closely into analogies and differences, or considering them in the important relation of cause and effect. But not unfrequently we find persons whose minds are differently constructed, who exhibit a |