CHAPTER VIII. ASSOCIATION. In this study, my friends, your attention must be continually called to yourselves. In the light of consciousness alone can you perceive the phenomena of mental philosophy. Examine yourselves then, as we pass from subject to subject, and see, whether the facts of consciousness do not correspond with what are here presented. Let us suppose that, after the lapse of years, we return to the place where our childhood was passed. There is the old family mansion, but the forms that occupied it are at rest in the tomb, though as we enter, they seem to start out into life and being before the mind. The dear aged mother is again seated in the very chair that supported her form when living; her ready smile beams upon the mind's eye, the fond words she has spoken vibrate on the heart strings. We walk through the village; yonder school-house carries us back to the tasks we in childhood unwillingly learned, the master sits at the deserted desk, and through every broken pane of the lone building we see the flaxen locks and the laughing eyes of our former merry companions. Under that elm-tree where the sheep are now grazing, we hear the frolic voices and go over again the sports that once were so delightful. Wherefore do these images of things so long unthought of float before the mind? Why now does the remembrance of joys that are past come like sweet strains of music "pleasant and mournful to the soul?" It is because the mind has the power of associating things present, with things past and absent, and the objects that now present themselves to the senses bring to its perceptions, 'objects, that have long lain like things disregarded in the memory. This associating power in the mind is brought into action by a variety of circumstances. Resemblance is one. The countenance of a stranger will recall to us that of a friend; so a scene in a foreign land will forcibly remind us of home. The sound of the church bell at St. Helena drew tears from the eyes of Napoleon, for it recalled to him the quiet and happy season of his boyhood, in his own native island. A young woman found herself among strangers, in sickness and sorrow, without sympathy, and without care. Her mind naturally strong, bore up under misfortune until she was carried to the hospitable dwelling of a person who commiserated her. Looking up, half fainting after her removal, at the bed-side, she beheld a lady in middle life, ministering, with affectionate looks to her wants. The curtained bed and the comfortable apartment caught her eye; she burst into a passionate fit of weeping, and seizing the stranger lady's hand exclaimed, "home and my mother too!" Thus also, it is that the mind compares, and traces analogies between objects and subjects. Life is compared to a day. Youth the morning, manhood the noon, old age the evening; and to complete the comparison death is termed the night. So youth is sometimes named the spring, manhood the summer and age the winter. Here is the origin of metaphor and allegory. A strong man is called a Hercules, a patriotic defender of his country a Washington. In personification the winds are said to be furies; the winter a monarch. "See winter comes to rule the varied year, Contrast also brings up strong associations and thus heightens our joys or increases our sorrows. Safety succeeding danger, and relief after severe pain, are enjoyed with keen delight. So disappointment when we had great expectations, poverty overtaking us in the midst of affluence; death breaking in upon a family circle in the full enjoyment of youth and health, are ex ceedingly bitter. A great object associated with a small one makes the great one appear larger, and the less, smaller than it really is. In the objects of sight the mind finds a gratification in the association of contrasting forms and colours. The bright sunshine with the dark shades of the woods; the deep green of the earth with the brilliant blue of the heavens; the gigantic oak with the little violet; the sublime cataract with the gentle rivulet. And beautifully does this associating power in the mind harmonize with the objects of its perceptions found in nature, so uniform, so varied, so contrasted. The love of home and friends is sometimes heightened by the contrast of situation. Some Greenlanders were carried slaves to Copenhagen; the magnificence of the city augmented their grief, as the contrast brought to their minds the poverty of their own beloved country, and home was vividly presented to them. Many died of sorrow, though treated with kindness, and several were drowned in attempting to return home in an open boat. Alas," said Caractacus, the king of the rude Britons, when carried a captive to Rome, "with all these splendid palaces, could you envy me a cottage in Britain ?" A boy placed at a public military school in France, was observed at the time of meals, to refuse all food except bread and water. When ordered to take other nourishment and reprimanded for his disobedience, he wept. The officer in charge pressed him with questions, and he acknowledged that the thought of partaking of good soups and meats among strangers, while his mother and brothers were almost without bread at home, was more than he could bear. To the association of contrast, chiefly is to be referred that combination of thought termed wit. Pope in his description of a lady's toilet. has these lines: "The tortoise here and elephant unite, Transform'd to combs, the speckled and the white, Also, in describing the things lost upon earth that are found in the moon, he says: "There, heroes' wits are kept in ponderous vases, Contiguity or nearness, is the foundation of many associations. My own brings with it emotions very different from those we feel in contemplating what is anothers. Hence the pref |