stance, 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 possible, 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 race. 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.

§ 341. 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, 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.

§ 342. Inordinate fear from casual associations.

But

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. 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 irresistible 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 her 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 often suffered more from the apprehension than she could have suffered from the most agonizing torture that ever attended the hour of dissolution.*

§ 343. Casual associations in respect to persons.

That the Affections may be more or less disordered by means of casual associations, is further evident from what we notice in the intercourse of individuals with each other. Men sometimes form such an aversion to others, or associate with them such sentiments of dread, that the connexion of the persons and the feelings becomes permanent and unconquerable.-It has sometimes been the case, that a man of distinguished talents has been defeated and prostrated by another, in an argument perhaps, on some public occasion; and, although he harbours no resentment against his opponent, and has no sense of inferiority, yet he never afterward meets him in company without experiencing a very sensible degree of uneasiness and suffering.

Persons have sometimes been ill treated by others; and this occasionally forms the basis of an invincible association either of aversion or dread. The poet Cowper, in early life, suffered in this way. A boy of cruel Letter iii.

* Elementary Principles of Education,

temper, his superior in age, made him the object of long-continued ill treatment and persecution. "This boy," he remarks, "had impressed such a dread of his figure upon my mind, that I well remember being afraid to lift up my eyes upon him higher than his knees; and that I knew him by his shoe-buckles better than by any other part of his dress."

An individual was once perfectly cured of madness by a very harsh and offensive operation. During all his life after, he acknowledged, with the most sincere gratitude, that he could not have received a greater benefit; and still he was utterly unable to bear the sight of the operator, it suggested so strongly the dreadful suffering which he underwent.*

Some men have an exceeding and unaccountable aversion to the mere features and countenance of another, and cannot bear to be looked upon by them. A statement is somewhere given of a person of a noble family, who was not able to bear that an old woman should look upon him. Certain persons, in a season of merriment which is not always wisely directed towards these humbling infirmities of our nature, succeeded in suddenly and unexpectedly introducing him into the presence of one such, but the shock to his feelings was so great as to terminate in his death.

§ 344. Casual association in connexion with objects and places. The mental operations, in consequence of strong casual associations, may be perplexed in their action in connexion with particular places and objects. "Some persons," says Dr. Conolly, in reference to this subject, "are mad and unmanageable at home, and sane abroad. We read in Aretaus of a carpenter, who was very rational in his workshop, but who could not turn his steps towards the Forum without beginning to groan, to shrug his shoulders, and to bemoan himself. Dr. Rush relates an instance of a preacher in America, who was mad among his parishioners except in the pulpit, where he conducted himself with great * Locke's Essay, bk. ii., chap. xxxii.

ability; and he also speaks of a judge who was very lunatic in mixed society, but sagacious on the bench."

"I have known patients," says the same writer in another place," in whom there was a tendency to mania, complain of the difficulty they found in guarding against dislike, not only of particular individuals, but of particular parts of a room or of the house, or of particular articles of furniture or dress; those momentary feelings of uneasiness or antipathy to which all are subject, becoming in them aggravated or prolonged."* In connexion with the facts just stated, he mentions the case of an individual who could not bear the sight of white stockings; and of a certain Russian general, who entertained a singular antipathy to mirrors; so much so that the Empress Catharine always took care to give him audience in a room without any.

In connexion with this class of facts, it may be proper to refer a moment to a singular practice which is related of Dr. Johnson, and which is unquestionably to be ascribed to some early and unfortunate association. His biographer has given an account of it in the following terms: "He had another particularity, of which none of his friends ever ventured to ask an explanation. It appeared to me some superstitious habit, which he had contracted early, and from which he had never called upon his reason to disentangle him. This was his anxious care to go out or in at a door or passage, by a certain number of steps from a certain point, or at least so that as either his right or left foot (I am not certain which) should constantly make the first movement when he came close to the door or passage. Thus I conjecture; for I have, upon innumerable occasions, observed him suddenly stop, and then seem to count his steps with a deep earnestness; and, when he had neglected or gone wrong in this sort of magical movement, I have seen him go back again, put himself into a proper posture to begin the ceremony, and, having gone through it, break * Conolly on Insanity, Lond. ed., p. 98, 218.