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[ Pg 550 ] CHAPTER XIV . [ 463 ] ASSOCIATION . After discrimination , association ! Already in the last chapter I have had to invoke , in order to explain the improvement of certain discriminations by practice , the ' association ' of the objects to be distinguished , with other more widely differing ones . It is obvious that the advance of our knowledge must consist of both operations ; for objects at first appearing as wholes are analyzed into parts , and objects appearing separately are brought together and appear as new compound wholes to the mind . Analysis and synthesis are thus the incessantly alternating mental activities , a stroke of the one preparing the way for a stroke of the other , much as , in walking , a man's two legs are alternately brought into use , both being indispensable for any orderly advance . The manner in which trains of imagery and consideration follow each other through our thinking , the restless flight of one idea before the next , the transitions our minds make between things wide as the poles asunder , transitions which at first sight startle us by their abruptness , but which , when scrutinized closely , often reveal intermediating links of perfect naturalness and propriety — all this magical , imponderable streaming has from time immemorial excited the admiration of all whose attention happened to be caught by its omnipresent mystery . And it has furthermore challenged the race of philosophers to banish something of the mystery by formulating the process in simpler terms . The problem which the philosophers have set themselves is that of ascertaining principles of connection between the thoughts which thus appear to sprout one out [ Pg 551 ] of the other , whereby their peculiar succession or coexistence may be explained . But immediately an ambiguity arises : which sort of connection is meant ? connection thought - of , or connection between thoughts ? These are two entirely different things , and only in the case of one of them is there any hope of finding ' principles . ' The jungle of connections thought of can never be formulated simply . Every conceivable connection may be thought of — of coexistence , succession , resemblance , contrast , contradiction , cause and effect , means and end , genus and species , part and whole , substance and property , early and late , large and small , landlord and tenant , master and servant , — Heaven knows what , for the list is literally inexhaustible . The only simplification which could possibly be aimed at would be the reduction of the relations to a smaller number of types , like those which such authors as Kant and Renouvier call the ' categories ' of the understanding . [ 464 ] According as we followed one category or another we should sweep , with our thought , through the world in this way or in that .
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