Definitions HQ

The Association of ideas (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a gentle force, not a chain: it commonly prevails, which is why the world's languages so nearly correspond.

The Association of ideas (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a kind of attraction in the mental world, with effects as extraordinary as gravity's in the natural one — and causes just as unknown.

The Association of ideas (n.) works ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠so silently we discover it only by its effects; it produces no emotion of its own, so alone it can never raise a passion.

The Association of ideas (n.) runs ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠on only three rails: resemblance (a picture leads to the original), contiguity (one room to the next), and cause and effect (a wound to its pain).

The Association of ideas (n.) is, ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠for us, the cement of the universe: the only links binding its parts together or connecting us with anything outside ourselves.