sement, there is another expedient which may be useful; we may call
the power of association to our assistance: this power is sometimes a
full match for the most lively sensations. For instance, suppose a boy
of strong feelings had been offended by some trifle, and expressed
sensations of hatred against the offender obviously too violent for
the occasion; to bring the angry boy's imagination to a temperate
state, we might recall some circumstance of his former affection for
the offender; or the general idea, that it is amiable and noble to
command our passion, and to forgive those who have injured us. At the
sight of his mother, with whom he had many agreeable associations, the
imagination of Coriolanus raised up instantly a train of ideas
connected with the love of his family, and of his country, and
immediately the violence of his sensations of anger were subdued.

Brutus, after his friend Cassius has apologized to him for his "rash
humour," by saying, "that it was hereditary from his mother," promises
that the next time Cassius is over-earnest with "his Brutus, he will
think his mother chides, and leave him so;" that is to say, Brutus
promises to recollect an association of ideas, which shall enable him
to bear with his friend's ill humour.

Children, who associate ideas very strongly and with rapidity,[78]
must be educated with continual attention. With children of this
class, the slightest circumstances are of consequence; they may at
first appear to be easily managed, because they will remember
pertinaciously any reproof, any reward or punishment; and, from
association, they will scrupulously avoid or follow what has, in any
one instance, been joined with pain or pleasure in their imagination:
but unfortunately, accidental events will influence them, as well as
the rewards and punishments of their preceptors; and a variety of
associations will be formed, which may secretly govern them long
before their existence is suspected. We shall be surprised to find,
that even where there is apparently no hope, or fear, or passion, to
disturb their judgment, they cannot reason, or understand reasoning.
On studying them more closely, we shall discover the cause of this
seeming imbecility. A multitude of associated ideas occur to them
upon whatever subject we attempt to reason, which distract their
attention, and make them change the terms of every proposition with
incessant variety. Their pleasures are chiefly secondary refl