the two sorts of association. Bain[1] was first to announce the pre-eminent intellectual importance of "association by similarity," and to rank it as the characteristic of genius and of mental ability. "Whatever the difference may be," Dr. James says,[2] "it is what separates the man of genius from the prosaic creature of habit and routine thinking."
The closer description of association by similarity as persistent association has already shown the impossibility of making this generalization too positive. The word-associations[3] which are also persistent are examples of such cases of association which require no more intellectual acuteness than the simplest instances of desistent (contiguity) associations. To think "tariff-reform" when some one says "tariff" is proof of no subtler endowment of mind, than if I think "reform" simply, though the first is through a persistent, and the second through a desistent, association.
The real distinction — so far as it is involved in the process of association — between the brilliant and the ordinary intellect is indicated in the difference, between total (or nearly total) and focalized (or nearly focalized) association, that is, between the association of objects and the association of qualities. This is the sort of association which is at the root of all figurative language and is illustrated in poetry of every form. No one save a poet, at sight of a daisy, will be reminded, in quick succession, of
A nun demure, of lowly part;
Or sprightly maiden, of love's court.
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A queen in crown of rubies drest;
A starveling in a scanty vest;
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A little Cyclops, with one eye
Staring to threaten and defy,
