Page:Philosophical Review Volume 1.djvu/411

No. 4.], and this distinctive feature is, strictly speaking, no form of association at all, and certainly no similarity.

Mr. Bradley has enforced this view in his careful and interesting chapter on association. Dr. James admirably states it and elaborates the physiological correlate of "association by similarity," that is, the continuance of the first brain-excitation after the radiation of energy into the surrounding brain-tracts.

Dr. James's classification suffers from the retention of the old nomenclature with which his own scarcely tallies. He identifies "association by contiguity" with the fundamental fact of association. He shows also that the significant feature of "association by similarity" is this persistence of an accentuated part of the object of consciousness. But he emphasizes, especially from his physiological standpoint, the quantitative distinction in cases of association, which he expresses by the terms total, partial, and focalized Recall. "Association by similarity," with its characteristic persistence of an identical element, is treated as synonymous with focalized recall. The fact is, that association with persistence ("by similarity") admits the distinction of degree and may be total or partial as well as focalized. A combination of qualities, — even that combination of qualities which we call thing, — or that mixture of cognition, emotion, and volition which forms the total object of consciousness, may persist. For instance, a lump of sugar by its whiteness quality may remind me of a white elephant (a case of focalized association); or by a combination of its whiteness, sweetness, and nourishment qualities, it may suggest angel-cake; or, finally, the whole lump may remind me of that lump with which I sweetened my yesterday’s coffee. These last are instances of partial association through the persistence first of a group of qualities, next of a thing. If the sight of the whole breakfast-room be followed by the visual image of yesterday’s breakfast-table, with the same setting and in the same