ected
pleasures, and they do not judge by their actual sensations so much as
by their associations. They like and dislike without being able to
assign any sufficient cause for their preference or aversion. They
make a choice frequently without appearing to deliberate; and if you,
by persuading them to a more detailed examination of the objects,
convince them, that according to the common standard of good and evil,
they have made a foolish choice, they will still seem puzzled and
uncertain; and, if you leave them at liberty, will persist in their
original determination. By this criterion we may decide, that they are
influenced by some secret false association of ideas; and, instead of
arguing with them upon the obvious folly of their present choice, we
should endeavour to make them trace back their ideas, and discover the
association by which they are governed. In some cases this may be out
of their power, because the original association may have been totally
forgotten, and yet those connected with it may continue to act: but
even when we cannot succeed in any particular instance in detecting
the cause of the errour, we shall do the pupils material service by
exciting them to observe their own minds. A tutor, who carefully
remarks the circumstances in which a child expresses uncommon grief or
joy, hope or fear, may obtain complete knowledge of his associations,
and may accurately distinguish the proximate and remote causes of all
his pupil's desires and aversions. He will then have absolute command
over the child's mind, and he should upon no account trust his pupil
to the direction of any other person. Another tutor, though perhaps of
equal ability, could not be equally secure of success; the child would
probably be suspected of cunning, caprice, or obstinacy, because the
causes of his tastes and judgments could not be discovered by his new
preceptor.

It often happens, that those who feel pleasure and pain most strongly,
are likewise most disposed to form strong associations of ideas.[79]
Children of this character are never stupid, but often prejudiced and
passionate: they can readily assign a reason for their preference or
aversion; they recollect distinctly the original sensations of
pleasure or pain, on which their associations depend; they do not,
like Mr. Transfer in Zelucco, like or dislike persons and things,
because they have _been used to them_, but because they have received
some injury or benefit from the