2p18sc.md (2105B)
1 We now clearly see what Memory is. It is simply a 2 certain association of ideas involving the nature of things 3 outside the human body, which association arises in the mind 4 according to the order and association of the modifications 5 (affectiones) of the human body. I say, first, it is an 6 association of those ideas only, which involve the nature of 7 things outside the human body: not of ideas which answer to the 8 nature of the said things: ideas of the modifications of the 9 human body are, strictly speaking (II. xvi.), those which involve 10 the nature both of the human body and of external bodies. I say, 11 secondly, that this association arises according to the order and 12 association of the modifications of the human body, in order to 13 distinguish it from that association of ideas, which arises from 14 the order of the intellect, whereby the mind perceives things 15 through their primary causes, and which is in all men the same. 16 And hence we can further clearly understand, why the mind from 17 the thought of one thing, should straightway arrive at the 18 thought of another thing, which has no similarity with the first; 19 for instance, from the thought of the word pomum (an apple), a 20 Roman would straightway arrive at the thought of the fruit apple, 21 which has no similitude with the articulate sound in question, 22 nor anything in common with it, except that the body of the man 23 has often been affected by these two things; that is, that the 24 man has often heard the word pomum, while he was looking at the 25 fruit; similarly every man will go on from one thought to 26 another, according as his habit has ordered the images of things 27 in his body. For a soldier, for instance, when he sees the 28 tracks of a horse in sand, will at once pass from the thought of 29 a horse to the thought of a horseman, and thence to the thought 30 of war, &c.; while a countryman will proceed from the thought of 31 a horse to the thought of a plough, a field, &c. Thus every man 32 will follow this or that train of thought, according as he has 33 been in the habit of conjoining and associating the mental images 34 of things in this or that manner. 35 36