which we can hope to produce nothing that will be a source of pleasure to others. It is the power of fancy which supplies the poet with metaphorical language, and with all the analogies which are the foundation of his allusions; but it is the power of imagination that creates the complex scenes he describes, and the fictitious characters he delineates. To fancy, we apply the epithets of rich or luxuriant,-to imagination, those of beautiful or sublime. SECT. II.-OF THE PRINCIPLES OF ASSOCIATION AMONG OUR IDEAS. The facts which I stated in the former Section, to illustrate the tendency of a perception, or of an idea, to suggest ideas related to it, are so obvious as to be matter of common remark. But the relations which connect all our thoughts together, and the laws which regulate their succession, were but little attended to before the publication of Mr. Hume's writings. It is well known to those who are in the least conversant with the present state of metaphysical science, that this eminent writer has attempted to reduce all the principles of association among our ideas to three: Resemblance, Contiguity in time and place, and Cause and Effect. The attempt was great, and worthy of his genius; but it has been shown by several writers since his time, that his enumeration is not only incomplete, but it is even indistinct, so far as it goes. 1 See, in particular, Lord Kames's Elements of Criticism, and Dr. Gerard's Essay on Genius. See also Dr. Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric, vol. i. p. 197. It is observed by Dr. Beattie, that something like an attempt to enumerate the laws of association is to be found in Aristotle; who, in speaking of Recollection, insinuates, with his usual brevity, that "the relations by which we are led from one thought to another, in tracing out, or hunting after," as he calls it, any particular thought which does not immediately occur, are chiefly three, [four] Resemblance, Contrariety, and Contiguity."- See Dissertations, Moral and Critical, p. 9; also, p. 145. The passage to which Dr. Beattie refers is as follows: Οταν οὖν ἀναμιμνησκώμεθα, κινούμεθα τῶν προτέρων τινὰ κινήσεων, ἕως ἂν κινηθῶμεν, μεθ ̓ ἣν ἐκείνη εἴωθε. Διὸ καὶ τὸ ἐφεξῆς θηρεύομεν νοήσαντες ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν, ἢ ἄλλου τινός, καὶ ἀφ ̓ ὁμοίου, ἢ ἐναντίου, ἢ τοῦ σύνεγγυς. Διὰ τοῦτο γίνεται ἡ ἀνάμ nos.-Aristot de Memor. et Reminisc. [c. 2.] It is not necessary for my present purpose that I should enter into a critical examination of this part of Mr. Hume's system; or that I should attempt to specify those principles of association which he has omitted. Indeed, it does not seem to me that the problem admits of a satisfactory solution; for there is no possible relation among the objects of our knowledge, which may not serve to connect them together in the mind; and therefore although one enumeration may be more comprehensive than another, a perfectly complete enumeration is scarcely to be expected. Nor is it merely in consequence of the relations among things, that our notions of them are associated: they are frequently coupled together by means of relations among the words which denote them; such as a similarity of sound, or other circumstances still more trifling. The alliteration which is so common in poetry, and in proverbial sayings, seems to arise, partly at least, from associations of ideas founded on the accidental circumstance of the two words which express them beginning with the same letter. 44 "But thousands die, without or this or that, --Pope's Ep. to Lord Bathurst. Ward tried, on puppies, and the poor, his drop."-Id. Imitation of Horace. "Puffs, powders, patches; bibles, billets-doux."-Id. Rape of the Lock. This indeed pleases only on slight occasions, when it may be supposed that the mind is in some degree playful, and under the influence of those principles of association which commonly take place when we are careless and disengaged. Every person must be offended with the second line of the following couplet, which forms part of a very sublime description of the Divine power: "Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part, As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart."-Id. Essay on Man, Ep. 1. To these observations it may be added, that things which have no known relation to each other are often associated, in consequence of their producing similar effects on the mind. Some of the finest poetical allusions are founded on this principle; and accordingly, if the reader is not possessed of sensibility congenial to that of the poet, he will be apt to overlook their meaning, or to censure them as absurd. To such a critic it would not be easy to vindicate the beauty of the following stanza, in an Ode addressed to a lady by the author of the Seasons: "Oh thou, whose tender, serious eye Expressive speaks the soul I love; The pensive shadows of the grove." I have already said that the view of the subject which I propose to take, does not require a complete enumeration of our principles of association. There is, however, an important distinction among them, to which I shall have occasion frequently to refer, and which, as far as I know, has not hitherto attracted the notice of philosophers. The relations upon which some of them are founded, are perfectly obvious to the mind; those which are the foundation of others, are discovered only in consequence of particular efforts of attention. Of the former kind are the relations of Resemblance and Analogy, of Contrariety, of Vicinity in time and place, and those which arise from accidental coincidences in the sound of different words. These, in general, connect our thoughts together, when they are suffered to take their natural course, and when we are conscious of little or no active exertion. Of the latter kind, are the relations of Cause and Effect, of Means and End, of Premises and Conclusion; and those others which regulate the train of thought in the mind of the philosopher when he is engaged in a particular investigation. It is owing to this distinction that transitions, which would be highly offensive in philosophical writing, are the most pleasing of any in poetry. In the former species of composition, we expect to see an author lay down a distinct plan or method, and observe it rigorously; without allowing himself to ramble into digressions suggested by the accidental ideas or expressions which may occur to him in his progress. In that state of mind in which Poetry is read, such digressions are not only agreeable, but necessary to the effect; and an arrangement founded on the spontaneous and seemingly casual order of our thoughts, pleases more than one suggested by an accurate analysis of the subject. How absurd would the long digression in praise of Industry, in Thomson's Autumn, appear, if it occurred in a prose essay ! -a digression, however, which, in that beautiful poem, arises naturally and insensibly from the view of luxuriant harvest, and which as naturally leads the poet back to the point where his excursion began: "All is the gift of Industry; whate'er Exalts, embellishes, and renders life Delightful. Pensive Winter, cheer'd by him, Sits at the social fire, and happy hears Th' excluded tempest idly rave along ; His harden'd fingers deck the gaudy Spring: Without him Summer were an arid waste, Nor to th' Autumnal months could thus transmit That waving round, recall my wand'ring song." In Goldsmith's Traveller, the transitions are managed with consummate skill, and yet, how different from that logical method which would be suited to a philosophical discourse on the state of society in the different parts of Europe! Some of the finest are suggested by the associating principle of Contrast. Thus, after describing the effeminate and debased Romans, the poet proceeds to the Swiss : "My soul, turn from them-turn we to survey Where rougher climes a nobler race display." And, after painting some defects in the manners of this gallant but unrefined people, his thoughts are led to those of the French: "To kinder skies, where gentler manners reign, I turn-and France displays her bright domain." The transition which occurs in the following lines, seems to be suggested by the accidental mention of a word, and is certainly one of the happiest in our language:— "Heavens! how unlike their Belgic Sires of old! Numberless illustrations of the same remark might be collected from the ancient poets, more particularly from the Georgics of Virgil, where the singular felicity of the transitions has attracted the notice even of those who have been the least disposed to indulge themselves in philosophical refinements concerning the principles of Criticism. A celebrated instance of this kind occurs in the end of the first book; the consideration of the weather and of its common prognostics leading the fancy, in the first place, to those more extraordinary phenomena which, according to the superstitious belief of the vulgar, are the forerunners of political revolutions, and afterwards, to the death of Cæsar and the battles of Pharsalia and Philippi. The manner in which the poet returns to his original subject, displays that exquisite art which is to be derived only from the diligent and enlightened study of nature: "Scilicet et tempus veniet, cum finibus illis Agricola, incurvo terram molitus aratro, Aut gravibus rastris galeas pulsabit inanes, Grandiaque effossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris." The facility with which ideas are associated in the mind, is very different in different individuals, a circumstance which, as I shall afterwards shew, lays the foundation of remarkable varieties among men, both in respect of genius and of character. I am inclined, too, to think, that in the other sex (probably in consequence of early education) ideas are more easily associated together than in the minds of men. Hence the liveliness of their fancy, and the superiority they possess in epistolary writing, and in those kinds of poetry, in which the principal recommendations are ease of thought and expression. Hence, too, the facility with which they contract or lose habits, |