the least in their story. Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Shakespeare, and
many other writers have seized upon such characters and made use of them for
their comic effect. James, in illustrating this mental type, has quoted the
following from Miss Austen's "Emma":
"'But where could you hear it?' cried Miss Bates. 'Where could you possibly hear
it, Mr. Knightley? For it is not five minutes since I received Mrs. Cole's note—
no, it cannot be more than five—or at least ten—for I had got my bonnet and
spencer on, just ready to come out—I was only gone down to speak to Patty
again about the pork—Jane was standing in the passage—were not you, Jane?—
for my mother was so afraid that we had not any salting-pan large enough. So I
said I would go down and see, and Jane said: "Shall I go down instead? for I
think you have a little cold, and Patty has been washing the kitchen." "Oh, my
dear," said I—well, and just then came the note.'"
The Remedy.—The remedy for such wearisome and fruitless methods of
association is, as a matter of theory, simple and easy. It is to emphasize,
intensify, and dwell upon the significant and essential in our thinking. The
person who listens to a story, who studies a lesson, or who is a participant in any
event must apply a sense of value, recognizing and fixing the important and
relegating the trivial and unimportant to their proper level. Not to train one's self
to think in this discriminating way is much like learning to play a piano by
striking each key with equal force!
3. TRAINING IN ASSOCIATION
Since association is at bottom nothing but habit at work in the mental processes,
it follows that it, like other forms of habit, can be encouraged or suppressed by
training. Certainly, no part of one's education is of greater importance than the
character of his associations. For upon these will largely depend not alone the
content of his mental stream, the stuff of his thinking, but also its organization,
or the use made of the thought material at hand. In fact, the whole science of
education rests on the laws and principles involved in setting up right systems of
associative connections in the individual.
The Pleasure-Pain Motive in Association.—A general law seems to obtain
throughout the animal world that associative responses accompanied by pleasure
tend to persist and grow stronger, while those accompanied by pain tend to
weaken and fall away. The little child of two years may not understand the