rvening states of consciousness called up by association.'[537]
Belief involves association at every step. The belief in external
objects is, as 'all men admit' ... 'wholly resolvable into
association.'[538] 'That a cause means and can mean nothing to the
human mind but constant antecedence' (and therefore 'inseparable
association,' as he thinks) 'is no longer a point in dispute.'[539]
Association, it is true, may produce wrong as well as right beliefs;
right beliefs when 'in conformity with the connections of
things,'[540] and wrong beliefs when not in conformity. In both cases
the belief is produced by 'custom,' though, happily, the right custom
is by far the commonest. The 'strength of the association follows the
frequency.' The crow flies east as well as west; but the stone always
falls downwards.[541] Hence I form an 'inseparable association'
corresponding to a belief in gravitation, but have no particular
belief about the direction of a crow's flight.

This gives the doctrine of 'indissoluble association'--the pivot of
the whole scheme--the doctrine, says J. S. Mill, which, 'if it can be
proved, is the greatest of all the triumphs of the Association
Philosophy.'[542] The younger Mill always insisted upon the vast
importance of the principle; but he here admits a difficulty. In a
long note[543] upon James Mill's chapter on 'Belief,' conspicuous for
his usual candour, he confesses the inadequacy of his father's view.
The comment indicates the point of divergence and yet shows curiously
the ground common to both. James Mill's theory states facts in some
sense undeniable. Our 'ideas' cohere and combine to form a tissue: an
imagery or series of pictures which form the content and are somehow
the ground of our beliefs. The process of formation clearly involves
'association.' The scent of the rose is associated with the colour:
both with the visible form and so forth. But is this process the same
thing as believing, or have we to explain the belief by some mental
activity different from, however closely connected with, the
imagination, or in his phrase the 'ideation'? Here J. S. Mill finds a
difficulty. The statement, 'I believe that thunder will follow
lightning,' is something more than the statement, 'the sight suggests
or calls up the sound.' The mental picture considered by itself may be
described as a fact, without considering what belief, or whether any
belief, is implied. J. S. Mill therefore makes a distinction i