among the wheat, and will persist along with it until the end. In his boyhood
these images were given into the keeping of his brain cells, and they are only
being faithful to their trust.
Association by Similarity and Contrast.—All are familiar with the fact that
like tends to suggest like. One friend reminds us of another friend when he
manifests similar traits of character, shows the same tricks of manner, or has the
same peculiarities of speech or gesture. The telling of a ghost or burglar story in
a company will at once suggest a similar story to every person of the group, and
before we know it the conversation has settled down to ghosts or burglars. One
boastful boy is enough to start the gang to recounting their real or imaginary
exploits. Good and beautiful thoughts tend to call up other good and beautiful
thoughts, while evil thoughts are likely to produce after their own kind; like
produces like.
Another form of relationship is, however, quite as common as similars in our
thinking. In certain directions we naturally think in opposites. Black suggests
white, good suggests bad, fat suggests lean, wealth suggests poverty, happiness
suggests sorrow, and so on.
The tendency of our thought thus to group in similars and opposites is clear
when we go back to the fundamental law of association. The fact is that we more
frequently assemble our thoughts in these ways than in haphazard relations. We
habitually group similars together, or compare opposites in our thinking; hence
these are the terms between which associative bonds are formed.
Partial, or Selective, Association.—The past is never wholly reinstated in
present consciousness. Many elements, because they had formed fewer
associations, or because they find some obstacle to recall, are permanently
dropped out and forgotten. In other words, association is always selective,
favoring now this item of experience, now that, above the rest.
It is well that this is so; for to be unable to escape from the great mass of
minutiæ and unimportant detail in one's past would be intolerable, and would so
cumber the mind with useless rubbish as to destroy its usefulness. We have
surely all had some experience with the type of persons whose associations are
so complete and impartial that all their conversation teems with unessential and
irrelevant details. They cannot recount the simplest incident in its essential
points but, slaves to literalness, make themselves insufferable bores by entering
upon every lane and by-path of circumstance that leads nowhere and matters not