Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768) [attrib.]

Yorick's Meditations: Upon Various Interesting and Important Subjects

London

Printed for R. Stevens

1760

"By this happy term, association of ideas, we are enabled to account for the most extraordinary phaenomina in the moral world; and thus Mr. Locke may be said to have found a key to the inmost recesses of the human mind."

OH! thou that canst to nonsense procure veneration, mysterious concatenation of ideas the most remote, how extensive is thy influence, and how great thy power! To thee the great owe all their distinction. His lordship fluttering in brocade may possibly not be a more respectable personage, than the porter that stands at his door, yet where e'er he goes, obsequious crowds with reverence bow before him--what can this be owing to? to the magic of a title--the ideas of worth, honour, and every kind of excellence, have, by undiscerning mortals, been connected with a title, and nothing can better prove the force of the association of ideas, as there are in nature no things more distinct than a title and real worth. The officer that struts and swears with an air of boldness and freedom, as naturally excites in the breast of each beholder the idea of courage, yet frequent experience has proved to a demonstration, that a cockade is not an infallible sign of that quality. The mind has with equal capriciousness attached the idea of grace to certain pieces of lawn properly disposed upon black. Thus is the idea of courage annexed to a habit of one colour, the idea of grace to an habit of another colour, and, what seems still more surprizing, each particular species of learning is denoted by a particular habit, thus a black gown and a square cap are infallible signs, that the person to whom they belong is a logician, metaphysician, mathematician, and a perfect master of the literae humaniores. The idea of profound knowledge in all the various branches of physic is annexed to a long wig, the idea of reports, cases, and all the quirks of the law to a quoif, and the idea of a talent for poetry to a ragged coat. Strange and unaccountable are the combinations which this extravagant coupling of ideas gives occasion to--the sagacious Locke informs us of a gentleman who could never dance except there was an old trunk in the room with him; and I myself know a dramatic poet that can never write, except one of the panes of his window be broken. But, alas! the influence of this fantastic power begins before we come into the world; and if the mother should happen to have too strong an imagination, 'tis ten to one but the child is born with the head of a dog. By this happy term, association of ideas, we are enabled to account for the most extraordinary phaenomina in the moral world; and thus Mr. Locke may be said to have found a key to the inmost recesses of the human mind.
(pp. 76-80)

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Yorick's Meditations: Upon Various Interesting and Important Subjects. Viz. Upon Nothing. Upon Something. Upon the Thing. (London: Printed for R. Stevens, 1760). <Link to ECCO-TCP>

10/26/2013