cannot endure the sight of a fish, eel, or lobster; another person is disgusted at the sight of cheese, honey, eggs, milk, or apples; another is exceedingly distressed, and even convulsed, at the sight of a toad or a cat, a grasshopper or a beetle.

§ 226. Of Association in connexion with the
Appetites.

In proceeding to give some illustrations of this interesting subject, which has hitherto received but little attention, we begin with the Appetites, which are subject to strong Associative influences, as will appear by some statements.

I.-Almost every article which is capable of being masticated and digested is made, in one country or another, an article of food. It is the case, at the same time, that there are many articles used as food in one country which are not used as food in an other. This difference in the manner of living is to be ascribed, in many cases, to some early and fixed association. In some countries the people eat rats, mice, frogs, lizards, horseflesh, dogs, locusts, cater pillars, &c.* In other countries, in our own for instance, the associations adverse to the use of such kinds of food are so strong that it is next to impossible to overcome them.

II.-There are appetitive associations of a different kind. It is well known, for instance, that the appetite for drink may be inflamed by a mere name, or the sight of a particular building or place, or the

*Lander's Niger, vol. i., Am. ed., p. 170, 179.-Lives of Celebrated Travellers, vol. i., Am. ed., p. 102, 215.

This unques

return of a certain hour of the day. tionably is the result of a casual association. And the association may have become so strong, that the appetite is rendered wholly irrepressible whenever such objects recur. This is particularly true when the liquor itself, the rum, gin, wine, or brandy, is placed directly before the thorough-going drunkard. The appetite in a moment becomes so strong as to convulse the whole soul. He is agitated and rent with a sort of madness; and rushes upon the object before him, much as the furious lion seizes and rends his keeper when he has accidentally seen and tasted his blood.

§ 227. Of Casual Associations in connexion with the Propensities.

As we pass on from the Appetites to the consideration of that part of our Sentient nature which, in distinction from the appetites on the one hand and the affections on the other, is known as the Propensities, we find some instances of the power of association, both in strengthening and in annulling them. -Among other Propensities, which have a distinct and natural origin, is the desire of society; but it is undoubtedly the case, that peculiar circumstances may operate either to increase this desire or to annul it altogether. All cases of decided and permanent Misanthropy, for instance, are the work, with perhaps a few exceptions of congenital alienation, not of nature, but of circumstances. If a man of kind and benevolent feelings is exceedingly ill-treated by one whom he has often favoured, it is possi

ble, at least, that it will result in a fixed aversion to that person, which nothing can afterward overcome.

If a deep and permanent injury were inflicted, not merely by a friend, but a brother, the effect on the mind might be so great as not only to break up the original principle of sociability, but implant a decided and unchangeable hostility to the whole human Such treatment would be so contrary from what the injured person had a right to expect, that the mind would be thrown entirely out of its original position, and with such force as to be unable to recover it.

race.

§ 228. Other instances of Casual Association in connexion with the Propensities.

The desire of power, in the remarks which were formerly made upon that subject, was regarded as an original propensity. This principle may become disordered in its action by becoming inordinately intense, and also in connexion with some casual association. Mr. Locke, in his Letters on Toleration, mentions the case of an individual (the case already instanced under the head of inordinate desire of power) whose mind was so long and intently fixed upon some high object, that he became partially insane. He was, for the most part, rational at other times, but whenever the object he had so earnestly pursued was mentioned, it brought into exercise so many intense associations that he immediately became deranged.

Although we might find it difficult to illustrate this subject from the ordinary forms of the propensity to

Imitation, the power of casual associations may distinctly be shown in sympathetic imitation. If a person's feelings be, from any cause, so strongly excited as to show themselves in involuntary bodily action, subsequently the mere, sight of the person, place, or instrument that was prominently concerned in the original excitement of the mind, will generally be attended with a recurrence of the sympathetic bodily action. After such results have followed a number of times, the association will become so strong, that it will be very difficult, if not impossible, for the sympathetic person to repress the outward bodily signs, in all cases, coming within the reach of the association.

§ 229. Inordinate fear from Casual Associations.

The same views may undoubtedly be carried into the higher department of the Affections or Passions. It is sufficiently evident, for instance, that the passion of FEAR is an attribute of man's nature; and, in ordinary cases, it is susceptible of being subjected to the control of reason and the sentiments of duty. But this is not always the case. Casual associations are sometimes formed which no effort of reason and no calls of duty can rend asunder. We will endeavour to illustrate this subject by some familiar instances.

Some persons have been exceedingly frightened by thunder and lightning at early periods of life. The fright may have been occasioned either directly, or by the actual terrific power and nearness of the explosion, or by merely seeing an exhibition of

great fear in parents or others more advanced in years. And from that hour to the end of life they have never been able, with all possible care and anxiety, to free themselves from the most distressing fear on such occasions.

Casual associations, occasioned by some unfortunate circumstances in early life, have been the source of very great and irrepressible fears in respect to death. The fear of death is natural; and, perhaps we may say, is instinctive; but it does not ordinarily exist in such intensity as essentially to interrupt one's happiness. And yet, from time to time, we find unhappy exceptions to this statement. Miss Hamilton, in her Letters on Education, gives an interesting account of a lady who suffered exceedingly from such fears. She was a person of an original and inventive genius, of a sound judgment, and her powers of mind had received a careful cultivation. But all this availed nothing against the impressions which had been wrought into her mind from infancy. The first view which she had of death in infancy was accompanied with peculiar circumstances of terror; and the dreadful impression which was then made was heightened by the injudicious language of the nursery. Ever afterward, the mere mention or idea of death was attended with great suffering; so much so, that it was necessary, by means of every possible precaution, to keep her in ignorance of her actual danger when she was sick; nor was it permitted, at any time, to mention instances of death in her presence. So that the estimable writer of this statement asserts, that she