THE ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS
AS THE PRINCIPLE OF POETIC INVENTION IN HUME
0. Introduction.
Chambers’ Cyclopædia (1727) has the article titled “Association of Ideas”. The definition is as follows:“Association of ideas, is where two or more ideas, constantly and immediately follow or succeed
one another in the mind, so that the one shall almost infallibly produce the other; whether there be
any natural relation between them or not.”Here, you can see two definitions of association, namely, the association that provides a “natural”
relationship between ideas, and that provides an “unnatural” relationship among ideas. The latter was
given by John Locke. He added a new chapter titled “Of the Association of Ideas” to the fourth editionof An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1700), revealing his own association theory prior to
Hume. Here, Locke calls association the “wrong connexion in our minds…” “wholly owing to chanceor custom” [of ] “ideas, that in themselves are not all of kin.” This Lockean idea of association was
introduced to literary criticism, and it was used to explain the exceptions to the classical uniformity. For
example, Hutcheson used Locke’s association theory to explain the variety of taste, which deviates fromthe classical universality of taste.
Contrary to Locke, Hume regards association as the “natural” relationship among ideas. Thisdefinition of a “natural” relationship was already framed by Hobbes before Hume, but later Humeconstructed far more exhaustive theory, not referring to Hobbes. For Hume the association is the“natural” connection among ideas, which is common to all men, therefore it does not explain the
exception, such as the variety of taste, but it explains the rule itself. At the same time, Hume calls theassociation of ideas the “inventive” principle, which connects ideas freely, comparing it with memory,which connects ideas only in a certain sequence.
Hume’s theory of association drew far more attention and response than Hobbes’. Among them,Thomas Reid raised the gravest objection to Hume’s associationism. On the contrary, Alexander Gerard
accepted and applied the Humean association theory to literary criticism the most extensively.
Although their positions are contrastive, they noticed the same problems of applying
associationism to poetic invention. That is: certainly, the related words could be collected by association,
but to make a poem, a poet should choose a proper word from the words that association suggested,
place the words in order, and adapt them to the design of the whole.
The problem of the design and association has been mentioned by Abrams in the Mirror and theLamp (1953). Although he says “The endeavors of associationists to cope with these difficulties in theconcept of aesthetic design is a most interesting aspect of their writings,” he does not examine Hume’s
theory at all. Our concern is to consider Hume’s association theory and the responses to it made by Reidand Gerard, and to reveal the characteristics of Hume’s association theory.
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1. Hume’s theory on association of ideas: The free and lawlike imagination
To begin, we will briefly summarize Hume’s theory of association of ideas in general. In the first sectionof Treatise of Human Nature (1739) titled “Of the Origin of Ideas”, Hume draws a distinction between
simple ideas and complex ideas, and writes that every thought or image can be resolved into a minimum
unit, which is simple idea. In the third section, Hume contrasts memory and imagination in respect tothe “order and position” of simple ideas. Hume writes that the memory preserves the order and positionof the simple ideas, and imagination has the freedom to transpose its ideas.”
On the freedom of imagination, we read in Treatise: “nothing is more free than that faculty.” In
Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748) he gives the following more detailed observation:“Nothing is more free than the imagination of man; and though it cannot exceed that original
stock of ideas, furnished by the internal and external senses, it has unlimited power of mixing,
compounding, separating, and dividing these ideas, in all the varieties of fiction and vision.”
Although Hume admits imagination to have the utmost freedom, he emphasizes also that theimagination observes certain rules:“And even in our wildest and most wandering reveries, nay in our very dreams, we shall find, if
we reflect, that the imagination ran not altogether at adventures, but there was still a connection
upheld among the different ideas, which succeeded each other.”This operation of connecting, which works even in a dream, is nothing but the association of ideas.
The rules of association are reduced to no more than three principles: resemblance, contiguity, and cause
and effect. Hume compares these principles to Newton’s discovery:“Here is a kind of attraction, which in the mental world will be found to have as extraordinary
effects as in the natural, and to show itself in as many and as various forms. Its effects are every
where conspicuous;”
2. Association of Ideas in literary criticism
Hume states that the principle of the association of ideas “enters into most of his philosophy”, Humeapplies his theory of association of ideas not only to his epistemology, moral theory, or religious theory,
but also to the literary theory. Hume regards the relationship between association and literary criticism
as so important, that he devoted more than fifteen of eighteen paragraphs of the chapter “Of the
Association of Ideas” in Enquiry to the literary criticism.
“Of the Standard of Taste” in Four Dissertations (1757) is the best-known text of all Hume’s
writings on literary criticism. Here he propounds his classical view towards literary compositions. For
example Hume states that the good taste should “perceive the consistence and uniformity of the whole”,
and there should be “a mutual relation and correspondence of parts” in works of genius. “A mutual
relation” means probably association of ideas, but he does not give any further explanations on it in thisessay.

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Also in the chapter “Of the Association of Ideas” in Enquiry, the unity, another classic value,
is regarded as the criterion of a work of genius. However, here is to be found an innovative aspect of
Hume’s literary criticism. That is, that Hume tries to explain this unity by the principle of associationof ideas. Hume states that all critics after Aristotle have talked so much about the unity of action,
but “Perhaps, to little purpose, while they directed not their taste or sentiment by the accuracy ofphilosophy.” Hume is trying to explain the unity of a literary work with “the accuracy of philosophy” bynone other than the principle of association.
Here, Hume says “In all compositions of genius, … it is requisite, that the writer have some plan orobject. A production without a design would resemble more the ravings of a madman,” and “the eventsor actions … must be connected together, by some bond or tye: They must be related to each other in theimagination, and form a kind of Unity”. Hume continues to explain this unity by the three principles ofassociation: resemblance, contiguity, cause and effect.
For example, Hume says that in Metamorphoses “Ovid has formed his plan upon the connecting
principle of resemblance”. According to Hume, the composition has unity, because all the events
resemble, in that they are all fabulous transformations. Similarly, a historian who writes the history ofEurope during any century forms his plan upon the principle of contiguity in time and place.
But the most important principle for Hume is that of cause and effect. Hume says that thisprinciple enters into any narrative compositions, such as history, biography, epic or tragic poetry. For
Hume, “the knowledge of causes is not only the most satisfactory; … but also the most instructive; since
it is by this knowledge alone, we are enabled to control events, and govern futurity.” Hume thinks thatthe poetry is nothing but the causal chain of events as same as history. “The unity of action, therefore,
which is to be found in biography or history, differs not in kind, but in degree.” So the rule of the Unityof Action should be applied not only to dramatic poetry, but also to biography and history according to
Hume.
However, he continues that the poetry requires a stricter and closer unity than history. The reason
is that in poetry, the passions should be more enflamed, and “the strong connexion of the events, …
facilitates also the transfusion of the passions.” The association of ideas takes on not only a role of logicalconnection, but also of arousal of passions. Hume says:“How must it extinguish this warmth of affection, to be entertained, on a sudden, with a new
action and new personages, nowise related to the former; to find so sensible a breach or vacuity inthe course of the passions, by means of this breach in the connexion of ideas;”.
Thus the author should connect events by the principle of cause and effects, so that the work can
attain the unity.
However, this explanation of Hume is not very satisfactory. It is true that the association of ideas
can furnish an explanation for the unity, as far as this unity simply means that the events in a work aremutually related. But, if the unity means to have design, it seems to be difficult for the association theory
to be the principle of the unity of a work. This is because when producing something, the author should
not only collect materials by association, but also select and arrange them, and also adapt them to thedesign of the whole.

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YOKO YAMAGUCHIThe two philosophers of the eighteenth century, Thomas Reid and Alexander Gerard concerned
the same point. Let us now consider the responses by Reid and Gerard to the Hume’s association theory.
3. 0. The responses by Reid and Gerard
In Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man (1785), Reid points out the problems of applying theprinciple of association of ideas to literary criticism as following:“Granting that some happy thought first suggested the design of singing the wrath of Achilles,
yet, surely, it was a matter of judgment and choice where the narration should begin and whereit should end. Granting that the fertility of the poet’s imagination suggested a variety of richmaterials, was not judgment necessary to select what was proper, to reject what was improper, toarrange the materials into a just composition, and to adapt them to each other, and to the design of
the whole? No man can believe that Homer’s ideas merely by certain sympathies and antipathies,
by certain attractions and repulsions inherent in their natures, arranged themselves according to
the most perfect rules of epic poetry;”
Here, Reid rejects Hume’s view on association as “attraction”, taking the common conception of
the contemporary that the poetry is enabled by the two contrasting faculties: imagination and judgment.
As is seen in the quotation above, Reid perceives three difficulties of Hume’s theory: the selection,
arrangement, and adaptation to the design of materials. Gerard was also aware of all these points, andcoped with them in Essay on Genius (1774).
3. 1. Collecting and Selecting ideas in Reid and HumeTo begin with, we shall consider what Reid says about the process of collection and selection of ideas.
Reid says:“We seem to treat the thoughts that present themselves to the fancy in crowds, as a great man
treats those that attend his levee. They are all ambitious of his attention: he goes round the circle,
bestowing a bow upon one, a smile upon another ; asks a short question of a third ; while a fourth ishonoured with a particular conference ; and the greater part have no particular mark of attention,
but go as they came. It is true, he can give no mark of his attention to those who were not there,
but he has a sufficient number for making a choice and distinction. In like manner, a number ofThoughts present themselves to the fancy spontaneously; but, if we pay no attention to them, norhold any conference with them, they pass with the crowd, and are immediately forgot as if they had
never appeared. But those to which we think proper to pay attention, may be stopped, examined,
and arranged, for any particular purpose we have in view.”
Here we see how Reid think about thoughts in general. According to Reid, the thought consists of
two steps. First, the various ideas come to the mind, and the judgment having a sweeping glance selects
the proper idea. For Reid, imagination or association takes the part of collecting ideas, and judgment
takes another part of choosing ideas.

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In contrast, Hume perceives thoughts in a different way. Hume writes:“Nothing is more admirable, than the readiness, with which the imagination suggests its ideas, andpresents them at the very instant, in which they become necessary or useful. The fancy runs fromone end of the universe to the other in collecting those ideas, which belong to any subject. One
wou’d think the whole intellectual world of ideas was at once subjected to our view, and that we
did nothing but pick out such as were most proper for our purpose. They may not, however, be
any present, beside those very ideas, that are thus collected by a kind of magical faculty in the soul,
which, tho’ it be always most perfect in the greatest geniuses, and is properly what we call a genius,
is however inexplicable by the utmost efforts of human understanding.”
Here, Hume states that the magical operation of association can collect all the necessary andsufficient ideas, and the man in whom this association is perfect shall be called genius. According to
Hume, collection and selection of ideas adapted to the design is enabled at the same time by association.
Although here the answer to the problem of disposition is not to be found.
3. 2. Collecting, selecting and arranging ideas in Gerard
Let us now consider Gerard’s association theory. Gerard says the following, apparently using
Hume’s terms:“In a man of genius, the power of association is so great that when any idea is present to his mind, it
immediately leads him to the conception of those that are connected with it. No sooner almost is a
design formed, or the hint of a subject started than all the ideas which are requisite for compleating
it, rush into his view as if they were conjured up by the force of magic. His daring imagination
traverses all the nature, and collects materials fit for his purpose, from all the most distant cornersof the universe.”
Gerard calls this power of collecting ideas “comprehensiveness of the imagination”, which isa requirement of genius. Another requirement of genius according to Gerard is “regularity” of theimagination. Gerard says “regularity arises in a great measure from such a turn of imagination as enables
the associating principles, not only to introduce proper ideas, but also to connect the design of the wholewith every idea that is introduced”. So Gerard thinks that there are two types of association working in
the imagination of genius. The one is the association between ideas, and the other is between an idea
and the design. Gerard succeeds in accounting collection and selection of ideas fit for the design byintroducing two types of association.
However, he continues to say “in the arts and sciences, a huge collection of conceptions which bearsome relation to one another and to the main subject, will form only a confused heap, if they be not, by
a proper disposition, united into one regular work.” Now he moves to the problem of disposition.
In the following part, comparing genius to a vegetable, Gerard says that the collection anddisposition of materials is done at the same time when a man of genius produces a work.
“An architect contrives a whole palace in an instant ; but when he comes to build it, he must first6

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provide materials, and then rear the different parts of the edifice only in succession. But to collectthe materials, and to order and apply them, are not to genius distinct and successive works. Thisfaculty bears a greater resemblance to nature in its operations, than to the less perfect energies ofart. When a vegetable draws in moisture from the earth, nature, by the same action by which it
draws it in, and at the same time, converts it to the nourishment of the plant: it at once circulates
through its vessels, and is assimilated to its several parts. In like manner, genius arranges its ideas by
the same operation, and almost at the same time, that it collects them.”
However, contrary to this mention in section III, part I of Essay on Genius, in next section Gerard
emphasizes the necessity of judgment:“As a rich soil produces not only the largest quantity of grain, but also the greatest profusion ofsuch weeds as tend to choak it; so a fertile imagination, along with just and useful ideas, produces
many trifling, false, and improper thoughts.” So the judgment is needed for selection of ideas.
“Judgment cannot collect ideas, but it revises those which fancy has collected, and either adoptsof rejects them, as it finds cause.” Gerard continues to mentions the necessity of judgment also forthe disposition. “But however perfectly the associating principles perform this part of their office,a person will scarce reckon himself certain of the propriety of that disposition, till it has beenauthorized by judgment.”
Then Gerard explains the two steps of thinking, as same as in Reid. “Imagination must exhibit
all the various positions of the parts, and conceive the effect of every part in each of these positions.
Judgment must at the same time survey them with a piercing eye, compare readily the effect of each partin one position, with its effect in another, and from the result of tis comparisons, quickly pronounce,
which is the best arrangement.” And he comes to the banal conclusion: “It is the union of an extensive
imagination with an accurate judgment, that has accomplished the great geniuses of all ages.”
3. 3. Disposition of ideas in HumeIn contrast to this compromising solution of Gerard, Hume answers the problem of disposition, notmentioning the power of judgment at all. Hume accounts the writing process of a historian as follows:“…the historian traces the series of actions according to their natural order, remounts to theirsecret springs and principles, and delineates their most remote consequences… And always, he issensible, that the more unbroken the chain is, which he presents to his reader, the more perfect is
his production.”
Here we read “the series of actions according to their natural order”, and “unbroken” chain of
events. But this does not mean that the historian should write down all the events that occurred in acertain period and place. As “the natural order” means for Hume the causal chain, therefore the events,
which cannot be placed in it, are eliminated. In the same way, when there is a wanting between events
to make a causal chain, “he supplies by conjecture, what is wanting in knowledge.” Thus a work of a

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historian is made through selection and disposition of events determined by the association principle ofcause and effect.
As mentioned above, Hume says that the unities of poetry and history do not differ in kind, but
in degree. Which means, that although both history and poetry follow the same principle of cause andeffect, in history the connection among the events is looser, and in poetry it is closer. For example, when
you write the battle between Achilles and Hector, it is allowed in history to trace the causes of it backto as far as the Judgment of Paris, but it is not appropriate in poetry. Here Hume accounts again theselection and disposition of ideas, through the mere principle of cause and effect.
4. Characteristics of Humean association theory in literary criticism
Summing up, Hume regards association as the principle of poetic invention, explaining the selection,
disposition and the adaptation of ideas to the design only by the principle of association. Reid isconsistent putting an emphasis on judgment in poetic invention, and saying that the association itself
cannot be inventive. Gerard’s view as to the judgment’s commitment to association is ambiguous. Gerardsays on the one hand that not only collection, but also selection and disposition are carried out by the
association, but on the other hand judgment is indispensable for the latter two operations.
Let us consider as a conclusion, what makes these differences between Hume’s and the opponents’views on judgment. I think that for Hume, not the faculty but an idea itself has a connecting power.
Gerard explains poetic invention in terms of associationism, but he used the expression, which
Hume never used, “associated by the imagination”. This shows that Gerard does not think that an
idea itself has a connecting power, but the imagination connects ideas. In other words, Gerard regards
association as a mere operation of a faculty. But Hume’s view contrasts clearly with it. In section three ofEnquiry, he introduces the association theory into literary criticism, stating as follows:“…we shall consider some of the effects of this connexion upon the passions and imagination;”
The imagination here is not perceived as a subject which connects ideas, but as an object influenced
by the connecting power of ideas. Furthermore, Hume says as following. Here it seems again that heregards association of ideas not as an operation of imagination, but the connecting power of an idea
itself.
“And even in our wildest and most wandering reveries, nay in our very dreams, we shall find, if
we reflect, that the imagination ran not altogether at adventures, but there was still a connection
upheld among the different ideas, which succeeded each other.”“Our imagination has a great authority over our ideas; and there are no ideas that are different
from each other, which it cannot separate, and join, and compose into all the varieties of fiction.
But notwithstanding the empire of the imagination, there is a secret tie or union among particular
ideas, which causes the mind to conjoin them more frequently together, and make the one, upon
its appearance, introduce the other.”

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Hume does not say that the imagination connects ideas, but “notwithstanding the empire of theimagination”, there is a connection between ideas. It seems that this point of view concurs in comparing
association of ideas to “attraction”. Here is to be seen Hume’s original association theory, not that theimagination connects ideas, but that the idea itself has a connecting power. Hume suggests the newconcept of genius, that it is ascribed neither to judgment, nor imagination. Hume’s conception of humannature, which is not based on faculties, but on ideas and the connecting power of ideas underlines his
literary theory.
Yamaguchi Yoko
Tokyo University of Arts