But when the habit of reflection has been
inaugurated it adds much interest and value to all mental acquisitions.
There are also well-established principles which guide the mind in
elaborating its facts. The _laws of the association_ of ideas indicate
clearly the natural trend of mental elaboration. The association of
things because of contiguity in time and place is the simplest mode.
The classification of objects or activities on the basis of
resemblance, is the second form and that upon which the inductive
process is principally founded. In the third case objects and series
are easily retained in memory when the relation of cause and effect is
perceived between them. These natural highways of association,
especially the second and third, should be frequently traveled in
linking the facts of school study with each other. Indeed the outcome
of a rational survey of an object or fact in its different relations is
an association of ideas which is one of the best results of study.
Such connections of resemblance and difference or of cause and effect
are abundant and interesting in the natural sciences and physical
geography, also in history and languages.
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