Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/187

ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS. of the conditions mentioned above exerting an inllucnco), and upon the individual associating. The individual factor is resolvable into difler- enees in ideational type (the kind of ideas — visual, auditory, tactual, etc. — which the indi- vidual uses with greatest facility), and what have liecn called "diU'crcnces in intellectual tem- perament." i.e. the tendency to associate general names with the names of individuals (the .super- ordinating temperament), as man with CiEsar; or individuals with generals (the subordinating tenii)erament), as Cstsar with man; or to asso- ciate ideas upon the same level of generality (coordinating temperament), as plant with ani- mal.

When we have made a full analysis of the mind during association, and when we have a com- plete tal)ulation of the conditions under which association takes place, and have measured the temporal course of association, we shall have solved the problem which association presents to psychologj'. Even now (and experiment on asso- ciation is eomparativel.y new) we know that fre- quency, recency, vividness, position, and ability to attract the attention are real conditions upon which association depends; they are the cre- dentials, so to speak, which gain for processes a place in con.sciousness. Ye are not to under- stand by this that past experiences are waiting in the antechamber of the subconscious; but only that by reason of frequent repetitions, or recent excitations, or what not, there is a ten- dency for nervous processes to discharge in such and such a way. So that neural disposition de- termines the direction of discharge, and this, in turn, the appearance in consciousness of the as- sociated contents. This view of the matter makes it clear w'hy there is no distinct bit- of consciousness answering to the associative bond, but only conscious processes standing related, and hence more or less unified. The bond is a figure. More than this, we have set the time relations of the association and have learned that associated contents arc now exceedingly rich and now a mere thread; that the mass is now inten- sive and now weak, now clear and now obscure, now directed by a single element, and now by the xuiion of two or more streams of influence, now run through with pleasantness and now affect- ively indifferent; that successive association is, like ^vcry consciousness, kaleidoscopic, picking up processes here and dropping others there, but carried always by a common core, so that there is n<'ver a jump from one stage to another, never an hiatus within the chain, but invariably a gradual transition from point to point. These facts nake clear to us that the old contention regarding the 'laws' of contiguity, similarity, contrast, etc., was, after all, a secondary matter, and that it is the analysis of the contents col- lected within the association and the factu.al conditions of association that are of prime im- portance.

BTr.LTOGR.iPiiY. A. Bain, Mental and Moral ffcieiicc. Book II. (London. iaS4) ; W. .James, Principles of Psych olnfiy (New York, ISflO) ; G. F. Stout, .1. Maniiiil of Psycholoqii (London, 1809); E. B. Titchener, Outline of Psycholoqy (New York, 10(12).

ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCE'MENT OF SCI'ENCE. See Advancement of Science, Association.s for the.

ASSO'CIA'TIVE LAW. One of the funda- mental laws gdverning certain elementary proc- esses of mathematics. It is first met in addition, being stated thus: The sum is the same in whatever way the addends arc grouped, e.g. (2 + .•$) +5 = 2+ (.3 + 5) : or, in general, 0+ {h -- c) = («+ (j) + c. The associative law of multiplication may be stated thus: The product is the same in whatever way the factors are grouped, e.g., 2- (3-5) = (2-31 -5; or in gen- eral, a- (b-c) = ia-h) -0. Exponents and vectors are >uliject to similar laws.

ASSOLLANT, as'so'liiN', .Ieax-Baptiste Al- fred (1827-86). A French writer. He was born in Aubnsson; in 1852 visited America, and on his return published Seines de la fie des Etats- Unis (1858), a series of brilliant and skillful sketches. He wrote a number of stories and romances, such as Braneas (1859), Marcomir (1873). and Pendntf/on (1881), and contributed to many of the leading Parisian journals. His political articles forcefully and bitterly attacked Imperialists and Opportunists. A charge of plagiarism was bronglit by him against Sardou, on the ground that the tatter's L'Onele Sam was copied from Seines de la vie. A court of authors decided in favor of M. Sardou.

ASSOMMOIR, L', la'so'mwar' (Fr.. the bludgeon ). A novel by Emile Zola, belonging to his early 'realistic' period, and dealing with the evils of drunkenness among the poor. It was publislied in 1877.

AS'SONANCE (Fr., from Lat. ad, to + sonare, to sound). A substitute for rhjmie, con- sisting of a repetition of the same stressed vowels at the end of a line, without regard to the consonantal-sounds of the syllable. It was common in the early verse of the Rinnance peo- ples, and it has survived in popular poetry. Ex- amples of a.ssonance, taken from George Eliot's Spanish Gypsy, are blackness and dances, and roaming and floating. Assonance is much em- ployed in Spanish poetry. See Spanish Litera- lURE.

ASSUAN, a-swfin' (Ar. al, the + souaon, the opening — i.e. at the mouth of the Nile). The ancient Syene (Gk. Ivr/vi/). A town of Upper Egypt, on the east bank of the Nile, near the borders of Nidjia and at the first cataract, about 40 miles north of the Tropic of Cancer (Jlap: EgA-pt. F 8). Assiian. which is six miles north of Philte, has a garrison, and is the depot for the caravan trade with the Sudan. In ancient times it was famous for its granite quarries, which were worked under the earliest, Egyptian dynasties. Some quarries of red granite — ' Syenite ' from Syene, so called by Pliny — are still found in the neighborhood. On the western bank of the Nile there are many rock-hewn tombs of the Old and Middle Empires. The Roman poet Juvenal, whose keen satire was resented by the Imperial court, was banished to Syene, and lived there for some time as com- mander of the garrison. Assuan is gaining in commercial importance, on account of its posi- tion on the railway line to Alexandria, and the stinuilus given to agricultural interests by the construction of the great Nile dam at this place will add to its prosperity. Its population, in- cluding the suburbs, is estimated at 10.000.

ASSUAN DAM AND WA'TERWORKS'. See Dams and Resekvoiks.