10FeSO4 + 2KMnO4 + 8H2SO4 = 5Fe2(SO4)3 + K2SO4 + 2MnSO4 + 8H2O;
that is, the same amount of potassium permanganate is required to
oxidize 5 molecules of oxalic acid that is necessary to oxidize 10
molecules of iron in the form of ferrous sulphate to ferric sulphate, or
63 parts by weight of oxalic acid equal 56 parts by weight of metallic
iron. Ammonium ferrous sulphate may also be used; it contains
one-seventh of its weight of iron. (A. A. B.)
ASSEGAI, or ASSAGAI (from Berber-Arab _as-zahayah_, through Portuguese
_azagaia_), a weapon for throwing or hurling, a light spear or javelin
made of wood and pointed with iron, particularly the spear used by the
Zulu and other Kaffir tribes of South Africa. In addition to the
long-handled assegai there is a shorter weapon for use at close
quarters.
ASSELIJN, HANS (1610-1660), Dutch painter, was born at Diepen, near
Amsterdam. He received instruction from Esaias Vandevelde (1587-1630),
and distinguished himself particularly in landscape and animal painting,
though his historical works and battle pieces are also admired. He
travelled much in France and Italy, and modelled his style greatly after
Bamboccio (Peter Laer). He was one of the first Dutch painters who
introduced a fresh and clear manner of painting landscapes in the style
of Claude Lorraine, and his example was speedily followed by other
artists. Asselijn's pictures were in high estimation at Amsterdam, and
several of them are in the museums of that city. Twenty-four, painted in
Italy, were engraved.
ASSEMANI, the name of a Syrian Maronite family of famous Orientalists.
1. JOSEPH SIMON, a Maronite of Mount Lebanon, was born in 1687. When
very young he was sent to the Maronite college in Rome, and was
transferred thence to the Vatican library. In 1717 he was sent to Egypt
and Syria to search for valuable MSS., and returned with about 150 very
choice ones. The success of this expedition induced the pope to send him
again to the East in 1735, and he returned with a still more valuable
collection. On his return he was made titular archbishop of Tyre and
librarian of the Vatican library. He instantly began to carry into
execution most extensive plans for editing and publishing the most
valuable MS. treasures of the Vatican. His two great works are the
_Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana rec. manuscr. codd. Syr.,
Arab., Pers., Turc., Hebr., Samarit., Armen., Aethiop., Graec., Aegypt.,
Iber., et Malab., jussu et munif. Clem. XI._ (Rome, 1719-1728), 9 vols.
folio, and _Ephraemi Syri opera omnia quae extant, Gr., Syr., et Lat._,
6 vols. folio (Rome, 1737-1746). Of the _Bibliotheca_ the first three
vols. only were completed. The work was to have been in four parts--(1)
Syrian and allied MSS., orthodox, Nestorian and Jacobite; (2) Arabian
MSS., Christian and Mahommedan; (3) Coptic, Aethiopic, Persian and
Turkish MSS.; and (4) Syrian and Arabian MSS. not distinctively
theological; only the first part was completed, but extensive
preparations were made for the others. There is a German abridgment by
A.F. Pfeiffer.
2. JOSEPH ALOYSIUS, brother of Joseph Simon, and professor of Oriental
languages at Rome. He died in 1782. Besides aiding his brother in his
literary labours, he published, in 1749-1760, _Codex Liturgicus
Ecclesiae Universae in xv. libris_ (this is incomplete), and _Comment.
de Catholicis sive Patriarchis Chaldaeorum et Nestorianorum_ (Rome,
1775).
3. STEPHEN EVODIUS, nephew of Joseph Simon and Joseph Aloysius, was the
chief assistant of his uncle Joseph Simon in his work in the Vatican
library. He was titular archbishop of Apamea in Syria, and held several
rich prebends in Italy. His literary labours were very extensive. His
two most important works were a description of certain valuable MSS. in
his _Bibliotheae Mediceo-Laurentianae et Palatinae codd. manuscr.
Orientalium Catalogus_ (Flor. 1742), fol., and his _Acta SS. Martyrum
Orientalium._ He made several translations from the Syrian, and in
conjunction with his uncle he began the _Bibliothecae Apostol. Vatic.
codd. manusc. Catal., in tres partes distributus._ Only three vols. were
published, and the fire in the Vatican library in 1768 consumed the
manuscript collections which had been prepared for the continuation of
the work.
4. SIMON, grandnephew of Joseph Simon, was born at Tripoli in 1752, and
was professor of Oriental languages in Padua. He died in 1820. He is
best known by his masterly detection of the literary imposture of Vella,
which claimed to be a history of the Saracens in Syria.
ASSEMBLY, UNLAWFUL, the term used in English law for an assembly of
three or more persons with intent to commit a crime by force, or to
carry out a common purpose (whether lawful or unlawful), in such a
manner or in such circumstances as would in the opinion of firm and
rational men endanger the public peace or create fear of immediate
danger to the tranquillity of the neighbourhood. In the Year Book of the
third year of Henry VII.'s reign assemblies were referred to as not
punishable unless _in terrorem populi domini regis_. It has been
suggested (Criminal Code Commission, 1879) that legislation first became
necessary at a time when it was usual for those landed proprietors who
were on bad terms with one another to go to market at the head of bands
of armed retainers (Statute of Northampton, 1328, 2 Edw. III. c. 3). An
assembly, otherwise lawful, is not made unlawful if those who take part
in it know beforehand that there will probably be organized opposition
to it, and that it may cause a breach of the peace (_Beatty v.
Gillbanks_, 1882, 9 Q.B.D. 308). All persons may, and must if called
upon to do so, assist in dispersing an unlawful assembly (_Redford v.
Birley_, 1822, 1 St. Tr. n.s. 1215; _R. v. Pinney_, 1831, 3 St. Tr. n.s.
11). An assembly which is lawful cannot be rendered unlawful by
proclamation unless the proclamation is one authorized by statute (_R.
v. Fursey_, 1833, 3 St. Tr. n.s. 543, 567; _R. v. O'Connell_, 1831, 2
St. Tr. n.s. 629, 656; see also the Prevention of Crimes [Ireland] Act
1887). Meetings for training or drilling, or military movements, are
unlawful assemblies unless held under lawful authority from the crown,
the lord-lieutenant, or two justices of the peace (Unlawful Drilling Act
1820, s. 11).
An unlawful assembly which has made a motion towards its common purpose
is termed a _rout_, and if the unlawful assembly should proceed to carry
out its purpose, e.g. begin to demolish a particular enclosure, it
becomes a riot (q.v.). All three offences are misdemeanours in English
law, punishable by fine and imprisonment. The common law as to unlawful
assembly extends to Ireland, subject to the special legislation referred
to under the title RIOT. The law of Scotland includes unlawful assembly
under the same head as rioting.
_British Dominions Abroad._--The law of the British colonies as a
general rule as to unlawful assemblies follows the common law of
England. The definitions in the Criminal Codes of Canada (1892, s. 79)
and Queensland (1899, s. 61) are substantially the same as the
common-law definition above given. Under the Indian Penal Code (s. 141)
an assembly of five or more persons is designated an unlawful assembly
if the common object of the persons composing that assembly is--(1) to
overawe by criminal force, or show of criminal force, the legislative or
executive government of India, or the government of any presidency or
any lieutenant-governor, or any public servant in the exercise of the
lawful power of such public servant; (2) to resist the execution of any
law or of any legal process; (3) to commit any mischief or "criminal
trespass" or other offence; (4) by means of criminal force or show of
criminal force to any person, to take or obtain possession of any
property, or to deprive any person of the enjoyment of a right of way,
or of the use of water, or other corporeal right of which he is in
possession or enjoyment, or to enforce any right or supposed right; or
(5) by means of criminal force or show of criminal force, to compel any
person to do what he is not legally bound to do, or to omit to do what
he is legally entitled to do (see Mayne, _Ind. Cr. Law_, ed. 1896, p.
480). In South Africa and Mauritius the law on this subject is derived
from the Roman Dutch and French law (see RIOT.)
_United States._--The common-law definition of unlawful assembly is
accepted in the United States subject to the special legislation of the
constituent states. The New York Penal Code (s. 451) declares that
whenever three or more persons being assembled attempt or threaten any
act tending towards a breach of the peace or injury to person or
property, or any unlawful act, such assembly is unlawful (see Bishop,
_Amer. Crim. Law_, 8th ed., 1892, vol. i. s. 534, vol. ii. s. 1256).
ASSEN, the capital of the province of Drente, Holland, 16 m. by rail S.
of Groningen, at the junction of the two canals which run north and
south to Groningen and Meppel respectively. Pop. (1900) 11,329. It is
partly surrounded by a small forest belonging to the state. Assen
possesses schools (a gymnasium and burgher school), a chamber of
commerce, a museum of antiquities and a court-house. Peat-cutting forms
a considerable industry. Many prehistoric remains found in the
neighbourhood are in the museum at Leiden. Until the 19th century Assen
was a small place built round the convent in which Otto II. (of Lippe),
bishop of Utrecht, was murdered after being taken prisoner at Koevorden
in 1237.
ASSER, or ASSERIUS MENEVENSIS (d. c. 910), English bishop, and author
of a life of Alfred the Great, was a native of the western part of
Wales, and was related to Nobis, bishop of St David's. He became a monk
at St David's, and having acquired some reputation for learning, he was
invited by King Alfred to his court. The king met the monk at Denu
(probably East or West Dean, near Seaford in Sussex), but Asser did not
at once accept the invitation of Alfred, and returned to Wales to
consult his colleagues. He then agreed to spend six months of each year
with the king and six months in his own land; but his first stay at the
royal court extended to eight months, and it is probable that the
annual visit to Wales was curtailed if not altogether discontinued. It
is difficult to fix the date of Asser's arrival in England, but it was
probably about 885. He assisted the king in his studies, received from
him the monasteries of Congresbury and Banwell, and sometime later
"Exeter and its diocese in Saxonland and Cornwall." He became bishop of
Sherborne before 900, and his death is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle under the date 910, although it is possible that it occurred a
year or two earlier. The scanty details of Asser's life are taken from
his biography of Alfred, from which it is inferred that he was
acquainted with one or two Frankish biographies, and possibly had
visited the continent of Europe.
Asser's work, _Annales rerum gestarum Alfredi magni_, was written about
893, and consists of a chronicle of English history from 849 to 887, and
an account of Alfred's life, largely drawn from personal knowledge, down
to 887. The only manuscript of which there is any record dates from
about 1000, and was destroyed by fire in 1731. From this manuscript an
edition was printed in 1574 under the direction of Matthew Parker,
archbishop of Canterbury; but this contained many interpolations and
alterations which were copied by subsequent editors. The text has since
been the subject of careful study, and the edition edited by W.H.
Stevenson (Oxford, 1904) distinguishes between the original work of
Asser and the later additions. Some doubt has been cast upon the
authenticity of the work, especially by T. Wright in the _Biographia
Britannica literaria_ (London, 1842), who ascribes the life to a monk of
St Neots; but the latest scholarship regards it as the work of Asser,
although all the difficulties which surround the authorship have not
been removed. The life was largely used by subsequent chroniclers, among
others by Florence of Worcester, Simeon of Durham, Roger of Hoveden, and
William of Malmesbury.
See W.H. Stevenson, Introduction to Asser's _Life of King Alfred_
(Oxford, 1904); R. Pauli, Introduction to _Konig Aelfred_ (Berlin,
1851).
ASSESSMENT, (from Lat. _assessare_, to sit beside, to judge), a term
expressing either an official valuation of income or property for
purposes of taxation, or the amount so determined (see TAXATION and
VALUATION). It is also applied to the amount of damages fixed by a jury
in a court of law (see DAMAGES).
An _assessment committee_ is a statutory committee appointed under the
Union Assessment Acts 1862, 1880, for the purpose of making out the
valuation lists upon which the poor-law rate is based.
An _assessment policy_, in life insurance, is a policy issued at a fixed
premium, the excess of which over the portion necessary to meet current
claims and expenses goes to form a reserve fund which is devoted to
various forms of benefit for the policy-holders. See INSURANCE and
FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.
ASSESSOR (Lat. _assessare_, _assidere_, to sit by), a Roman term
originally applied to a trained lawyer who sat beside a governor of a
province or other magistrate, to instruct him in the administration of
the laws (see Roll, _De assessoribus magistratuum Romanorum_, Leipzig,
1872). The system is still exemplified in Scotland, where it is usual in
the larger towns for municipal magistrates, in the administration of
their civil jurisdiction, to have the aid of professional assessors. In
England, by the Judicature Act 1873, the court of appeal and the High
Court may in any cause or matter call in the aid of assessors. The
Patents Act 1907 makes special provision for assessors in patent and
trade-mark cases. By the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1891 the House
of Lords may, in appeals in admiralty actions, call in the aid of
assessors, while in the admiralty division of the High Court it is usual
for the Elder Brethren of Trinity House to assist as nautical assessors.
In admiralty cases in the county courts, too, the judge is frequently
assisted by assessors of "nautical skill and experience" (County Court
Admiralty Jurisdiction Act 1868). In the ecclesiastical courts assessors
assist the bishop in proceedings under the Church Discipline Act 1840,
s. 11, while under the Clergy Discipline Act 1892, s. 2, they assist the
chancellor in determining questions of fact. By the Appellate
Jurisdiction Act 1876, s. 14, the king in council may make rules for the
attendance of archbishops and bishops as assessors in the hearing of
ecclesiastical cases by the judicial committee of the privy council.
The term "assessor" is also very generally applied to persons appointed
to ascertain and fix the value of rates, taxes, &c., and in this sense
the word is used in the United States.
In France and in all European countries where the civil law system
prevails, the term _assesseur_ is applied to those assistant judges who,
with a president, compose a judicial court.
In Germany an _Assessor_, or _Beisitzer_, is a member of the legal
profession who has passed four years in actual practice and become
qualified for the position of a judge.
ASSETS (from the O. Nor. Fr. _assetz_, mod. Fr. _assez_, "enough"), in
English law, strictly the property of a debtor in the hands of his
representative sufficient for the satisfaction of his creditors or
legatees. Thus the property of a bankrupt is termed his assets and is
the fund out of which his liabilities must be paid. All property of the
debtor is assets, and it is not necessary that it should have been
reduced into possession by him.
The creditors of a debtor are either secured or unsecured. A secured
creditor, e.g. a mortgagee, has a prior claim to be paid his debt out of
his security. If on realization of the security there is a balance after
paying the debt, such balance becomes assets for the unsecured
creditors; if there is a deficit, then the creditor becomes an unsecured
creditor for such deficit. The unsecured creditors were formerly divided
into creditors by specialty and by simple contract, the first being
creditors secured by instrument under seal who ranked in priority to
simple contract creditors. But by Hinde Palmer's Act [the Executors Act]
1869 all unsecured creditors rank alike.
Assets are divisible into legal assets and equitable assets, and the
former class is again divisible into assets real and personal. These
distinctions, though formerly of great importance, have now lost most of
their meaning, but it is necessary briefly to describe the nature of
these divisions and their consequences. The distinction between assets
legal and equitable depends entirely upon the remedy open to the
creditor to recover his debt and in no way upon the nature of the
property from which the debt is sought to be recovered. If the creditor
had to sue the executor of a debtor at law to obtain payment out of the
property, that property was legal assets; but if the only remedy open to
the creditor to get at the property was to bring an action in chancery
for the administration of the estate, then the assets were equitable.
Legal assets, as has been said, were divided into real and personal
assets. The personal assets were those which devolved _virtute officii_
on the executor or administrator; such assets are since Hinde Palmer's
Act available equally for specialty and simple contract creditors. The
real assets consisted of those descending to the heir or devised to a
devisee, and were at law only liable for specialty debts. However, by
the Land Transfer Act 1897 it is provided that the real estate of a
deceased shall devolve upon the executor and "shall be administered in
the same manner ... and with the same incidents as if it were personal
estate." The distinction, therefore, between assets real and personal
has practically ceased to exist, and only continues in regard to such
property as is not included in the act, the most important of which is
land held in copyhold.
The equitable assets were treated otherwise. In the eyes of equity all
unsecured creditors stand upon the same footing, and a creditor suing
for administration of the estate sued on behalf of himself and all other
creditors of the estate, and the distinction between specialty and
simple contract creditors was ignored. Land was not at law liable to
satisfy simple contract creditors; but if a testator expressly charged
it with payment of his debts or devised it to his executors upon trust
to pay his debts, equity treated it as equitable assets and so made it
available to satisfy simple contract creditors; and finally by an act of
1833 it was provided that real estate should in all cases be assets to
be administered by equity for the benefit of simple contract creditors
as well as creditors by specialty. It will be seen therefore that,
generally speaking, all creditors have now the same remedies against the
executors either at law or in equity. The only property as to which
these distinctions at all survive is that not touched by the Land
Transfer Act 1897.
The act of 1833 just mentioned does not, however, deal with legacies,
which continue to be payable only out of personalty unless they are
expressly charged upon the realty by the testator; it has been contended
that the effect of the Land Transfer Act 1897 has been to alter this and
make the realty assets for the purpose of paying legacies, but this view
is believed to be unsound.
It is necessary for the representative so to distribute the assets that
any fund primarily liable shall bear its proper burden, and that as far
as possible all debts and legacies may be paid; this is said to be
"marshalling the assets," and a few examples of the principal cases of
marshalling will make this clear. If the personalty is exhausted in
satisfying the creditors the legatees are left without a fund from which
to be paid. But inasmuch as the creditor could have got paid out of the
realty, as well as the personalty, it is not fair that the legatee
should suffer by the creditor's choice, and he will therefore get
payment from the real estate. So again if one legacy is charged upon the
real estate and another is not, then if the former be paid out of the
personalty the latter will stand in its place and be paid from the real
estate.
Finally it shall be noticed that an insolvent estate may be administered
in bankruptcy. In such a case the law of bankruptcy regulates the order
in which the assets are divided among the creditors (see BANKRUPTCY),
but by the Judicature Act 1875, it is provided that an insolvent estate
may be administered in the chancery division, and in such a case "the
same rules shall prevail and be observed as to the respective rights of
secured and unsecured creditors and as to the debts and liabilities
provable and as to the valuation of annuities and future and contingent
liabilities respectively as may be in force for the time being under the
law of bankruptcy." This clause must be construed strictly, and it is
only in the three cases specifically mentioned that the rules of
bankruptcy will be imported into the administration of an insolvent
estate by the chancery division.
In a less strict sense, the term "assets," or "an asset," is used
derivatively as a synonym for any property, or as opposed to
"liabilities." Cecil Rhodes once spoke of the British flag as a "great
commercial asset" in South Africa, meaning merely that the imperial
connexion was a source of strength and credit.
ASSIDEANS (the Anglicized form, derived through the Greek, of the Hebrew
_Hasidim_, "the pious"), the name of a party or sect which stood out
against the Hellenization of the Jews in the 2nd century B.C. After the
massacre of those who fled from the forces of Antiochus Epiphanes and
would not resist on the sabbath, Mattathias (or Judas) decided to set
aside the law and was joined by a company of Assideans, brave men of
Israel every one, who offered themselves willingly for the law (1 Macc.
ii. 42, cf. 2 Macc. viii. 1). On the appointment of Alcimus (162 B.C.),
"a descendant of Aaron" as high-priest, "the Assideans were the first
who sought peace" (1 Macc. vii. 13 f.); but the treacherous murder of
sixty of them (ib. 16) threw them back into the arms of Judas. According
to 2 Macc. xiv., Alcimus identified them with the whole party of the
rebels, of which they were only one, though the most important, section.
See Schurer, _Geschichte des judischen Volkes_, i. 203; art. in
_Jewish Encyclopaedia_, s.v. "Hasidim" (S.M. Dubnow). (J. H. A. H.)
ASSIGNATS (from Lat. _assignatus_, assigned), a form of paper-money
issued in France from 1789 to 1796. Assignats were so termed, as
representing land _assigned_ to the holders.
The financial strait of the French government in 1789 was extreme. Coin
was scarce, loans were not taken up, taxes had ceased to be productive,
and the country was threatened with imminent bankruptcy. In this
emergency assignats were issued to provide a substitute for a metallic
currency. They were originally of the nature of mortgage bonds on the
national lands. These lands consisted of the church property
confiscated, on the motion of Mirabeau, by the Constituent Assembly on
the 2nd of November 1789, and the crown lands, which had been taken over
by the nation on the 7th of October (see FRENCH REVOLUTION).
The assignats were first to be paid to the creditors of the state. With
these the creditors could purchase national land, the assignats having,
for this purpose, the preference over other forms of money. If the
creditor did not care to purchase land, it was supposed that he could
obtain the face-value for them from those who desired land. Those
assignats which were returned to the state as purchase-money were to be
cancelled, and the whole issue, it was argued, would consequently
disappear as the national lands were distributed.
A first issue was made of 400,000,000 francs' worth of assignats, each
note being of 100 francs' value and bearing interest daily at a rate of
5%. They were to be redeemed by the product of the sales, and from
certain other sources, at the rate of 120,000,000 francs in 1791,
100,000,000 francs in 1792, 80,000,000 francs in 1793 and 1794, and the
surplus in 1795. The success of the issue was undoubted, and, possibly,
if the assignats had been restricted, as Mirabeau at first desired, to
the extent of one-half the value of the lands sold, they would not have
shared the usual fate of inconvertible paper money. Mirabeau was a
strenuous advocate of the assignats. "They represent," he said, "real
property, the most secure of all possessions, the soil on which we
tread." "There cannot be a greater error than the fear so generally
prevalent as to the over-issue of assignats ... reabsorbed progressively
in the purchase of the national domains, this paper-money can never
become redundant."
In 1790 the interest was reduced to 3%, and as the treasury had again
become exhausted, a further issue was decided upon; it was also decreed
that the assignats were to be accepted as legal tender, all public
departments being instructed to receive them as the equivalent of
metallic money. This second issue amounted to 800,000,000 francs and
carried no interest. It was solemnly declared in the decree authorizing
the issue that the maximum issue was never to exceed twelve hundred
millions. This pledge, however, was soon broken, and further issues
brought the total up to 3,750,000,000 francs. The consequence of these
further issues was instant depreciation, and the note of 100 francs
nominal value sank to less than 20 francs coin. Recourse was then had to
protective legislation. The first step was to decree the penalty of six
years' imprisonment against any person who should sell specie for a more
considerable quantity of assignats, or who should stipulate a different
price for commodities according as the payment was to be made in specie
or in assignats. For the second offence the penalty was to be twenty
years' imprisonment (August 1, 1793), for which the death penalty was
ultimately substituted (May 10, 1794). This severe provision was,
however, repealed after the fall of Robespierre. Notwithstanding these
precautions, the value of assignats still declined, till the proportion
to specie had become that of six to one. Then came the passing by the
Convention on the 3rd of May 1793 of the absurd "maximum." The decree
required all farmers and corn-dealers to declare the quantity of corn in
their possession and to sell it only in recognized markets. No person
was to be allowed to lay in more than one month's supply. A maximum
price was fixed, above which no one was to buy or sell under severe
penalties. These measures were soon stultified by further issues, and by
June 1794 the total number of assignats aggregated nearly 8,000,000,000,
of which only 2,464,000,000 had returned to the treasury and been
destroyed. The extension of the "maximum" to all commodities only
increased the confusion. Trade was paralysed and all manufacturing
establishments were closed down. Attempts by the Convention to increase
the value of the assignats were of no avail. Too many causes operated in
favour of their depreciation: the enormous issue, the uncertainty as to
their value if the Revolution should fail, the relation they bore to
both specie and commodities, which retained their value and refused to
be exchanged for a money of constantly diminishing purchasing power.
Even between the assignats themselves there were differences. The royal
assignats, which had been issued under Louis XVI., had depreciated less
than the republican ones. They were worth from 8 to 15% more, a fact due
to the hope that in case of a counter-revolution they would be less
likely to be discredited.
The Directory was guilty of even greater abuses in dealing with the
assignats. By 1796 the issues had reached the enormous figure of
45,500,000,000 francs, and even this gigantic total was swollen still
more by the numerous counterfeits introduced into France from the
neighbouring countries. The assignats had now become totally
valueless--the abolition of the "maximum" the previous year (1795) had
produced no effect, and, though, by various payments into the treasury,
the total number had been reduced to about 24,000,000,000 francs, their
face-value was about 30 to 1 of coin. At this value they were converted
into 800,000,000 francs of land-warrants, or _mandats territoriaux_,
which were to constitute a mortgage on all the lands of the republic.
These _mandats_ were no more successful than the assignats, and even on
the day of their issue were at a discount of 82%. They had an existence
of six months, and were finally received back by the state at about the
seventieth part of their face-value in coin.
AUTHORITIES.--L.A. Thiers, _Histoire de la revolution francaise_,
gives a full and graphic account of the assignats, the causes of their
depreciation, &c.; J. Garnier, _Traite des Finances_ (1862); J.
Bresson, _Histoire financiere de la France_ (1829); R. Stourm, _Les
Finances de l'ancien regime et de la revolution_ (1885); F.A. Walker,
_Money_ (1891); Henry Higgs, in the _Cambridge Modern History_, vol.
viii. (1904). (T. A. I.)
ASSIGNMENT, ASSIGNATION, ASSIGNEE (from Lat. _assignare_, to mark out),
terms which, as derivatives of the verb "to assign," are of frequent
technical use in law. To assign is to make over, and the term is
generally used to express a transference by writing, in
contradistinction to a transference by actual delivery. In England the
usual expression is assignment, in Scotland it is assignation. The
person making over is called the _assignor_ or _cedent_; the recipient,
the _assign_ or _assignee_. An assignee may be such either _by deed_, as
when a lessee assigns his lease to another, or _in law_, as when
property devolves upon an executor. The law as to assignment in
connexion with each particular subject, as the assignment of a chose in
action, assignment in contract, of dower, of errors, of a lease, &c.,
will be found under the respective headings. In a colloquial sense,
"assignation" means a secretly contrived meeting between lovers.
ASSINIBOIA, a name formerly applied to two districts of Canada, but not
now held by any. (1) A district formed in 1835 by the Hudson's Bay
Company, having in it Fort Garry at the junction of the Red and
Assiniboine rivers in Rupert's Land, North America. It extended over a
circular area, with a radius of 50 m. from Fort Garry. It was governed
by a local council nominated by the Hudson's Bay Company. It ceased to
exist when Rupert's Land was transferred to Canada in 1870. (2) A
district of the North-west Territories, which was given definite
existence by an act of the Dominion parliament in 1875. Assiniboia
extended from the western boundary of Manitoba (99 deg. W. in 1875, and
101 deg. 25' W. in 1881) to 111 deg. W., and from 49 deg. N. to 52 deg.
N. The name was a misnomer, as it barely touched the Assiniboine river.
To the north of the district lay the district of Saskatchewan, so that
when the two were united by the Dominion act of 1905, they were somewhat
changed in boundaries and the name Saskatchewan was given to the new
province. The derivation of Assiniboia is from two Ojibway words,
_assini_ meaning a stone, and the termination "to cook by roasting";
from these came a name first applied to a Dakota or Sioux tribe living
on the Upper Red river; afterwards when this tribe separated from the
Dakotas, its name was given to the branch of the Red river which the
tribe visited, the river being known as the Assiniboine and the tribe as
Assiniboin.
ASSINIBOIN ("Stone-Cookers"), a tribe of North American Indians of
Siouan stock. Their name (see above) is said to refer to their method of
boiling water by dropping red-hot stones into it. Their former range was
between the Missouri and the middle Saskatchewan on both sides of the
Canadian frontier. In 1904 there were 1234 in the United States, all on
reservations in Montana; and in 1902 there were 1371 in Canada.
See _Handbook of American Indians_, ed. F.W. Hodge (Washington, 1907).
ASSISE (from the Fr., derived from Lat. _assidere_, to sit beside), a
geological term for two or more beds of rock united by the occurrence of
the same characteristic species or genera.
ASSISI (anc. _Asisium_), a town and episcopal see of Umbria, Italy, in
the province of Perugia, 15 m. E.S.E. by rail from the town of Perugia.
Pop. (1901) town, 5338; commune, 17,240. The town occupies a fine
position on a mountain (1345 ft. above sea-level) with a view over the
valleys of the Tiber and Topino. It is mainly famous in connexion with
St Francis, who was born here in 1182, and returned to die in 1226. The
Franciscan monastery and the lower and upper church of St Francis were
begun immediately after his canonization in 1228, and completed in 1253,
being fine specimens of Gothic architecture. The crypt was added in
1818, when the sarcophagus containing his remains was discovered. The
lower church contains frescoes by Cimabue, Giotto and others, the most
famous of which are those over the high altar by Giotto, illustrating
the vows of the Franciscan order; while the upper church has frescoes
representing scenes from the life of St Francis (probably by Giotto and
his contemporaries) on the lower portion of the walls of the nave, and
scenes from Old and New Testament history by pupils of Cimabue on the
upper. The church of Santa Chiara (St Clare), the foundress of the Poor
Clares, with its massive lateral buttresses, fine rose-window, and
simple Gothic interior, was begun in 1257, four years after her death.
It contains the tomb of the saint and 13th-century frescoes and
pictures. Santa Maria Maggiore is also a good Gothic church. The
cathedral (San Rufino) has a fine facade with three rose-windows of
1140; the interior was modernized in 1572. The town is dominated by the
medieval castle (1655 ft.), built by Cardinal Albornoz (1367) and added
to by Popes Pius II. and Paul III. Two miles to the east in a ravine
below Monte Subasio is the hermitage _delle Carceri_ (2300 ft.), partly
built, partly cut out of the solid rock, given to St Francis by
Benedictine monks as a place of retirement. Below the town to the
south-west, close to the station, is the large pilgrimage church of
Santa Maria degli Angeli, begun in 1569 by Pope Pius V., with Vignola as
architect; but not completed until 1640. It contains the original
oratory of St Francis and the cell in which he died. Adjacent is the
garden in which the saint's thornless roses bloom in May. Half a mile
outside the town to the south-east is the convent of San Damiano,
erected by St Francis, of which St Clare was first abbess.
In the early middle ages Assisi was subject to the dukes of Spoleto; but
in the 11th century it seems to have been independent. It became
involved, however, in the disputes of Guelphs and Ghibellines, and was
frequently at war with Perugia. It was sacked by Perugia and the papal
troops in 1442, and even after that continued to be the prey of
factions. The place is now famous as a resort of pilgrims, and is also
important for the history of Italian art. The poet Metastasio was born
here in 1698.
See L. Duff-Gordon, _Assisi_ ("Mediaeval Towns" series, London, 1900).
For ancient history see ASISIUM. (T. As.)
ASSIUT, or SIUT, capital of a province of Upper Egypt of the same name,
and the largest and best-built town in the Nile Valley south of Cairo,
from which it is distant 248 m. by rail. The population rose from 32,000
in 1882 to 42,000 in 1900. Assiut stands near the west bank of the Nile
across which, just below the town, is a barrage, completed in 1902,
consisting of an open weir, 2733 ft. long, and over 100 bays or sluices,
each 16-1/2 ft. wide, which can be opened or closed at will. At the
western end of the barrage begins the Ibrahimia canal, the feeder of the
Bahr Yusuf, the largest irrigation canal of Egypt. The Ibrahimia canal
is skirted by a magnificent embankment planted with shady trees leading
from the river to the town. There are several bazaars, baths and
handsome mosques, one noted for its lofty minaret, and here the American
Presbyterian mission has established a college for both sexes. Assiut is
famous for its red and black pottery and for ornamental wood and ivory
work, which find a ready market all over Egypt. It is one of the chief
centres of the Copts. Here also is the northern terminus of the caravan
route across the desert, which, passing through the Kharga oasis, goes
south-west to Darfur. It is known as the Arbain, or forty days road,
from the time occupied on the journey. Assiut (properly Asyut) is the
successor of the ancient Lycopolis (Eg. Sioout), capital of the 13th
nome of Upper Egypt. Here were worshipped two canine gods (see ANUBIS),
Ophois (Wepwoi) being the principal god of the city, while Anubis
apparently presided over the necropolis. No ruins are visible, the
mounds of the old city being for the most part hidden under modern
buildings; but the slopes of the limestone hills behind it are pierced
with an infinity of rock-cut tombs, some of which were large and
decorated with sculptures, paintings and long inscriptions. The
archaeological commission of the _Description de l'Egypte_ visited them
in 1799, when the walls of many of the large tombs were still almost
intact; in the first half of the 19th century (and to some extent later)
an immense amount of destruction was caused by blasting for stone. Three
of the tombs illustrate one of the darkest periods in Egypt's history,
when the princes of Siut played a leading part in the struggle between
Heracleopolis and Thebes (Dyns. IX.-XI.); another, of the XIIth Dynasty,
contains a remarkable inscription detailing the contracts made by the
nomarch with the priests of the temples of Ophois and Anubis for
perpetual services at his tomb (see Breasted, _Ancient Records of Egypt,
Historical Documents_, vol. i. pp. 179, 258). Remains of the mummies of
dogs and similar animals sacred to these deities are scattered among the
debris on the hillside in abundance. Lycopolis was the birthplace of
Plotinus, the founder of Neo-Platonism (A.D. 205-270). From the 4th
century onwards its grottoes were the dwellings of Christian hermits,
amongst whom John of Lycopolis was the most celebrated. (F. Ll. G.)
ASSIZE, or ASSISE (Lat. _assidere_, to sit beside; O. Fr. _assire_, to
sit, _assis_, seated), a legal term, meaning literally a "session," but
in fact, as Littleton has styled it, a _nomen aequivocum_, meaning
sometimes a jury, sometimes the sittings of a court, and sometimes the
ordinances of a court or assembly.
It originally signified the form of trial by a jury of sixteen persons,
which eventually superseded the barbarous judicial combat; this jury was
named the grand assize and was sworn to determine the right of seisin of
land (see EVIDENCE). The grand assize was abolished in 1833; but the
term assize is still applicable to the jury in criminal causes in
Scotland.
In the only sense in which the word is not now almost obsolete, assize
means the periodical session of the judges of the High Court of Justice,
held in the various counties of England, chiefly for the purposes of
gaol delivery and trying causes at _nisi prius_. Previous to Magna Carta
(1215) writs of assize had all to be tried at Westminster, or to await
trial in the locality in which they had originated at the septennial
circuit of the justices in eyre; but, by way of remedy for the great
consequent delay and inconvenience, it was provided by this celebrated
act that the assizes of _mort d'ancestor_ and _novel disseisin_ should
be tried annually by the judges in every county. By successive
enactments, the civil jurisdiction of the justices of assize was
extended, and the number of their sittings increased, till at last the
necessity of repairing to Westminster for judgment in civil actions was
almost obviated to country litigants by an act, passed in the reign of
Edward I., which provided that the writ summoning the jury to
Westminster should also appoint a time and place for hearing such causes
within the county of their origin. The date of the alternative summons
to Westminster was always subsequent to the former date, and so timed as
to fall in the vacation preceding the Westminster term, and thus
"_Unless before_," or _nisi prius_, issues came to be dealt with by the
judges of assize before the summons to Westminster could take effect.
The _nisi prius_ clause, however, was not then introduced for the first
time. It occurs occasionally in writs of the reign of Henry III. The
royal commissions to hold the assizes are--(1) general, (2) special. The
general commission is issued twice a year to the judges of the High
Court of Justice, and two judges are generally sent on each circuit. It
covers commissions--(1) of oyer and terminer, by which they are
empowered to deal with treasons, murders, felonies, &c. This is their
largest commission; (2) of _nisi prius_ (q.v.) (3) of gaol delivery,
which requires them to try every prisoner in gaol, for whatsoever
offence committed; (4) of the peace, by which all justices must be
present at their county assizes, or else suffer a fine. Special
commissions are granted for inquest in certain causes and crimes. See
also the articles CIRCUIT; JURY.
Assizes, in the sense of ordinances or enactments of a court or council
of state, as the "assize of bread and ale," the "assize of Clarendon,"
the "assize of arms," are important in early economic history. As early
as the reign of John the observance of the _assisae venalium_ was
enforced, and for a period of 500 years thereafter it was considered no
unimportant part of the duties of the legislature to regulate by fixed
prices, for the protection of the lieges, the sale of bread, ale, fuel,
&c. (see ADULTERATION). Sometimes in city charters the right to assize
such articles is specially conceded. Regulations of this description
were beneficial in the repression of fraud and adulteration. Assizes are
sometimes used in a wider legislative connexion by early chroniclers and
historians--the "assisae of the realme," e.g. occasionally meaning the
organic laws of the country. For the "assizes of Jerusalem" see
CRUSADES.
The term assize, originally applying to an assembly or court, became
transferred to actions before the court or the writs by which they were
instituted. The following are the more important.
_Assize of darrien presentment_, or last presentation, was a writ
directed to the sheriff to summon an assize or jury to enquire who was
the last patron that presented to a church then vacant, of which the
plaintiff complained that he was deforced or unlawfully deprived by the
defendant. It was abolished in 1833 and the action of _quare impedit_
(q.v.) substituted. But by the Common Law Procedure Act 1860, no _quare
impedit_ can be brought, so that an action in the king's bench of the
High Court was substituted for it.
Assize of _mort d'ancestor_ was a writ which lay where a plaintiff
complained of an "abatement" or entry upon his freehold, effected by a
stranger on the death of the plaintiff's father, mother, brother,
sister, uncle, aunt, &c. It was abolished in 1833.
Assize of _novel disseisin_ was an action to recover lands of which the
plaintiff had been "disseised" or dispossessed. It was abolished in
1833. See Pollock and Maitland, _Hist. Eng. Law._
_Assize, clerk of_, an officer "who writes all things judicially done by
the justices of assizes in their circuits." He has charge of the
commission, and takes recognizances, records, judgments and sentences,
grants certificates of conviction, draws up orders, &c. By the Clerks of
Assize Act 1869 he must either have been for three years a barrister or
solicitor in actual practice, or have acted for three years in the
capacity of subordinate officer of a clerk of assize on circuit.
_United States._--There are no assize courts in the United States; it is
not the custom for supreme court judges of the states to go on circuit,
but the judges of the United States Supreme Court do sit as members of
the United States circuit courts in the several states periodically
throughout the year. These courts are not assize courts, but are federal
as distinguished from state courts, and have a special and limited
jurisdiction. In the several states the highest court is divided into
departments, in each of which there are courts presided over by supreme
court judges residing in that department, thus avoiding the assize court
or circuit-going system.
ASSMANNSHAUSEN, a village of Germany, in the Prussian province of
Hesse-Nassau, on the right bank of the Rhine and the railway from
Frankfort-on-Main to Niederlahnstein. Pop. 1100. It has a lithium
spring, baths and a _Kurhaus_, and is famed for its red wine
(Assmannshauser), which resembles light Burgundy. From here a railway
ascends the Niederwald.
ASSOCIATE (Lat. _associatus_, from _ad_, to, and _sociare_ to join). one
who is united with another, and so generally a companion--in particular
a subordinate member of an institution or society, as an associate of
the Royal Academy, or one holding a degree in a learned society lower
than that of fellow. In English law the associates are officers of the
supreme court, whose duties are to draw up the list of causes, enter
verdicts, hand the records to the parties, &c., and generally to conduct
the business of trials. By the Judicature (Officers) Act 1879 they were
styled masters of the supreme court, but the office is now amalgamated
with the crown office department, of which they are clerks.
ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS, or MENTAL ASSOCIATION, a term used in psychology
to express the conditions under which representations arise in
consciousness, and also for a principle put forward by an important
historical school of thinkers to account generally for the facts of
mental life. Modern physiological psychology has so altered the approach
to this subject that much of the older discussion has become antiquated,
but it may be recapitulated here for historical purposes.
_Earlier Theory._--In the long and erudite Note D**, appended by Sir
W. Hamilton to his edition of Reid's Works, many anticipations of
modern statements on association are cited from the works of ancient
or medieval thinkers; and for Aristotle, in particular, the glory is
claimed of having at once originated the doctrine and practically
brought it to perfection.[1] As translated by Hamilton, but without
his interpolations, the classical passage from the _De Memoria et
Reminiscentia_ runs as follows:--
"When, therefore, we accomplish an act of reminiscence, we pass
through a certain series of precursive movements, until we arrive at a
movement on which the one we are in quest of is habitually consequent.
Hence, too, it is that we hunt through the mental train, excogitating
from the present or some other, and from similar or contrary or
coadjacent. Through this process reminiscence takes place. For the
movements are, in these cases, sometimes at the same time, sometimes
parts of the same whole, so that the subsequent movement is already
more than half accomplished."
The passage is obscure, but it does at all events indicate the various
principles commonly termed contiguity, similarity and contrast.
Similar principles are stated by Zeno the Stoic, by Epicurus (see
Diog. Laert. vii. S 52, x. S 32), and by St Augustine (_Confessions_,
x. e. 19). Aristotle's doctrine received a more or less intelligent
expansion and illustration from the ancient commentators and the
schoolmen, and in the still later period of transition from the age of
scholasticism to the time of modern philosophy, prolonged in the works
of some writers far into the 17th century, Hamilton adduced not a few
philosophical authorities who gave prominence to the general fact of
mental association--the Spaniard Ludovicus Vives (1492-1540)
especially being most exhaustive in his account of memory.
In Hobbes's psychology much importance is assigned to what he called,
variously, the succession, sequence, series, consequence, coherence,
train of imaginations or thoughts in mental discourse. But not before
Hume is there express question as to what are the distinct principles
of association. John Locke had, meanwhile, introduced the phrase
"Association of Ideas" as the title of a supplementary chapter
incorporated with the fourth edition of his _Essay_, meaning it,
however, only as the name of a principle accounting for the mental
peculiarities of individuals, with little or no suggestion of its
general psychological import. Of this last Hume had the strongest
impression; he reduced the principles of association to
three--Resemblance, Contiguity in time and place, Cause and (or)
Effect. Dugald Stewart put forward Resemblance, Contrariety, and
Vicinity in time and place, though he added, as another obvious
principle, accidental coincidence in the sounds of words, and further
noted three other cases of relation, namely, Cause and Effect, Means
and End, Premisses and Conclusion, as holding among the trains of
thought under circumstances of special attention. Reid, preceding
Stewart, was rather disposed to make light of the subject of
association, vaguely remarking that it seems to require no other
original quality of mind but the power of habit to explain the
spontaneous recurrence of trains of thinking, when become familiar by
frequent repetition (_Intellectual Powers_, p. 387).
Hamilton's own theory of mental reproduction, suggestion or
association is a development, greatly modified, of the doctrine
expounded in his _Lectures on Metaphysics_ (vol. ii. p. 223, seq.),
which reduced the principles of association first to two--Simultaneity
and Affinity, and these further to one supreme principle of
Redintegration or Totality. In the ultimate scheme he posits no less
than four general laws of mental succession concerned in reproduction:
(1) _Associability_ or possible co-suggestion (all thoughts of the
same mental subject are associable or capable of suggesting each
other); (2) _Repetition_ or direct remembrance (thoughts coidentical
in modification, but differing in time, tend to suggest each other);
(3) _Redintegration_, direct remembrance or reminiscence (thoughts
once coidentical in time, are, however, different as mental modes,
again suggestive of each other, and that in the mutual order which
they originally held); (4) _Preference_ (thoughts are suggested not
merely by force of the general subjective relation subsisting between
themselves, they are also suggested in proportion to the relation of
interest, from whatever source, in which they stand to the individual
mind). Upon these follow, as special laws:--A, Primary--modes of the
laws of Repetition and Redintegration--(1) law of Similars (Analogy,
Affinity); (2) law of Contrast; (3) law of Coadjacency (Cause and
Effect, &c.); B, Secondary--modes of the law of Preference, under the
law of Possibility--(1) laws of Immediacy and Homogeneity; (2) law of
Facility.
_The Associationist School._--This name is given to the English
psychologists who aimed at explaining all mental acquisitions, and the
more complex mental processes generally under laws not other than
those which have just been set out as determining simple reproduction.
Hamilton, though professing to deal with reproduction only, formulates
a number of still more general laws of mental succession--law of
Succession, law of Variation, law of Dependence, law of Relativity or
Integration (involving law of Conditioned), and, finally, law of
Intrinsic or Objective Relativity--as the highest to which human
consciousness is subject; but it is in a sense quite different that
the psychologists of the so-called Associationist School intend their
appropriation of the principle or principles commonly signalized. As
far as can be judged from imperfect records, they were anticipated to
some extent by the experientialists of ancient times, both Stoic and
Epicurean (cf. Diogenes Laertius, as above). In the modern period,
Hobbes is the first thinker of permanent note to whom this doctrine
may be traced. Though, in point of fact, he took anything but an
exhaustive view of the phenomena of mental succession, yet, after
dealing with trains of imagination, or what he called mental
discourse, he sought in the higher departments of intellect to explain
reasoning as a discourse in words, dependent upon an arbitrary system
of marks, each associated with, or standing for, a variety of
imaginations; and, save for a general assertion that reasoning is a
reckoning--otherwise, a compounding and resolving--he had no other
account of knowledge to give. The whole emotional side of mind, or, in
his language, the passions, he, in like manner, resolved into an
expectation of consequences, based on past experience of pleasures and
pains of sense. Thus, though he made no serious attempt to justify his
analysis in detail, he is undoubtedly to be classed with the
associationists of the next century. They, however, were wont to trace
their psychological theory no further back than to Locke's _Essay_.
Bishop Berkeley was driven to posit expressly a principle of
suggestion or association in these terms:--"That one idea may suggest
another to the mind, it will suffice that they have been observed to
go together, without any demonstration of the necessity of their
coexistence, or so much as knowing what it is that makes them so to
coexist" (_New Theory of Vision_, S 25); and to support the obvious
application of the principle to the case of the sensations of sight
and touch before him, he constantly urged that association of sound
and sense of language which the later school has always put in the
foreground, whether as illustrating the principle in general or in
explanation of the supreme importance of language for knowledge. It
was natural, then, that Hume, coming after Berkeley, and assuming
Berkeley's results, though he reverted to the larger inquiry of Locke,
should be more explicit in his reference to association; but he was
original also, when he spoke of it as a "kind of attraction which in
the mental world will be found to have as extraordinary effects as in
the natural, and to show itself in as many and as various forms"
(_Human Nature_, i. 1, S 4). Other inquirers about the same time
conceived of association with this breadth of view, and set themselves
to track, as psychologists, its effects in detail.
David Hartley in his _Observations on Man_, published in 1749 (eleven
years after the _Human Nature_, and one year after the better-known
_Inquiry_, of Hume), opened the path for all the investigations of
like nature that have been so characteristic of English psychology. A
physician by profession, he sought to combine with an elaborate theory
of mental association a minutely detailed hypothesis as to the
corresponding action of the nervous system, based upon the suggestion
of a vibratory motion within the nerves thrown out by Newton in the
last paragraph of the _Principia_. So far, however, from promoting the
acceptance of the psychological theory, this physical hypothesis
proved to have rather the opposite effect, and it began to be dropped
by Hartley's followers (as F. Priestley, in his abridged edition of
the _Observations_, 1775) before it was seriously impugned from
without. When it is studied in the original, and not taken upon the
report of hostile critics, who would not, or could not understand it,
no little importance must still be accorded to the first attempt, not
seldom a curiously felicitous one, to carry through that parallelism
of the physical and psychical, which since then has come to count for
more and more in the science of mind. Nor should it be forgotten that
Hartley himself, for all his paternal interest in the doctrine of
vibrations, was careful to keep separate from its fortunes the cause
of his other doctrine of mental association. Of this the point lay in
no mere restatement, with new precision, of a principle of coherence
among "ideas," but in its being taken as a clue by which to follow
the progressive development of the mind's powers. Holding that mental
states could be scientifically understood only as they were analysed,
Hartley sought for a principle of synthesis to explain the complexity
exhibited not only in trains of representative images, but alike in
the most involved combinations of reasonings and (as Berkeley had
seen) in the apparently simple phenomena of objective perception, as
well as in the varied play of the emotions, or, again, in the manifold
conscious adjustments of the motor system. One principle appeared to
him sufficient for all, running, as enunciated for the simplest case,
thus: "Any sensations A, B, C, &c., by being associated with one
another a sufficient number of times, get such a power over the
corresponding ideas (called by Hartley also vestiges, types, images)
_a, b, c_, &c., that any one of the sensations A, when impressed
alone, shall be able to excite in the mind _b, c_, &c., the ideas of
the rest." To render the principle applicable in the cases where the
associated elements are neither sensations nor simple ideas of
sensations, Hartley's first care was to determine the conditions under
which states other than these simplest ones have their rise in the
mind, becoming the matter of ever higher and higher combinations. The
principle itself supplied the key to the difficulty, when coupled with
the notion, already implied in Berkeley's investigations, of a
coalescence of simple ideas of sensation into one complex idea, which
may cease to bear any obvious relation to its constituents. So far
from being content, like Hobbes, to make a rough generalization to all
mind from the phenomena of developed memory, as if these might be
straightway assumed, Hartley made a point of referring them, in a
subordinate place of their own, to his universal principle of mental
synthesis. He expressly put forward the law of association, endued
with such scope, as supplying what was wanting to Locke's doctrine in
its more strictly psychological aspect, and thus marks by his work a
distinct advance on the line of development of the experiential
philosophy.
The new doctrine received warm support from some, as Law and
Priestley, who both, like Hume and Hartley himself, took the principle
of association as having the like import for the science of mind that
gravitation had acquired for the science of matter. The principle
began also, if not always with direct reference to Hartley, yet,
doubtless, owing to his impressive advocacy of it, to be applied
systematically in special directions, as by Abraham Tucker (1768) to
morals, and by Archibald Alison (1790) to aesthetics. Thomas Brown (d.
1820) subjected anew to discussion the question of theory. Hardly less
unjust to Hartley than Reid or Stewart had been, and forward to
proclaim all that was different in his own position, Brown must yet be
ranked with the associationists before and after him for the
prominence he assigned to the associative principle in
sense-perception (what he called external affections of mind), and for
his reference of all other mental states (internal affections) to the
two generic capacities or susceptibilities of Simple and Relative
Suggestion. He preferred the word Suggestion to Association, which
seemed to him to imply some prior connecting process, whereof there
was no evidence in many of the most important cases of suggestion, nor
even, strictly speaking, in the case of contiguity in time where the
term seemed least inapplicable. According to him, all that could be
assumed was a general constitutional tendency of the mind to exist
successively in states that have certain relations to each other, of
itself only, and without any external cause or any influence previous
to that operating at the moment of the suggestion. Brown's chief
contribution to the general doctrine of mental association, besides
what he did for the theory of perception, was, perhaps, his analysis
of voluntary reminiscence and constructive imagination--faculties that
appear at first sight to lie altogether beyond the explanatory range
of the principle. In James Mill's _Analysis of the Phenomena of the
Human Mind_ (1829), the principle, much as Hartley had conceived it,
was carried out, with characteristic consequence, over the
psychological field. With a much enlarged and more varied conception
of association, Alexander Bain re-executed the general psychological
task, while Herbert Spencer revised the doctrine from the new point of
view of the evolution-hypothesis. John Stuart Mill made only
occasional excursions into the region of psychology proper, but
sought, in his _System of Logic_ (1843), to determine the conditions
of objective truth from the point of view of the associationist
theory, and, thus or otherwise being drawn into general philosophical
discussion, spread wider than any one before him its repute.
The Associationist School has been composed chiefly of British
thinkers, but in France also it has had distinguished representatives.
Of these it will suffice to mention Condillac, who professed to
explain all knowledge from the single principle of association
(_liaison_) of ideas, operating through a previous association with
signs, verbal or other. In Germany, before the time of Kant, mental
association was generally treated in the traditional manner, as by
Wolff. Kant's inquiry into the foundations of knowledge, agreeing in
its general purport with Locke's, however it differed in its critical
procedure, brought him face to face with the newer doctrine that had
been grafted on Locke's philosophy; and to account for the fact of
synthesis in cognition, in express opposition to associationism, as
represented by Hume, was, in truth, his prime object, starting, as he
did, from the assumption that there was that in knowledge which no
mere association of experiences could explain. To the extent,
therefore, that his influence prevailed, all inquiries made by the
English associationists were discounted in Germany. Notwithstanding,
under the very shadow of his authority a corresponding, if not
related, movement was initiated by J.F. Herbart. Peculiar, and widely
different from anything conceived by the associationists, as Herbart's
metaphysical opinions were, he was at one with them, and at variance
with Kant, in assigning fundamental importance to the psychological
investigation of the development of consciousness, nor was his
conception of the laws determining the interaction and flow of mental
presentations and representations, when taken in its bare
psychological import, essentially different from theirs. In F.E.
Beneke's psychology also, and in more recent inquiries conducted
mainly by physiologists, mental association has been understood in its
wider scope, as a general principle of explanation.
The associationists differ not a little among themselves in the
statement of their principle, or, when they adduce several principles,
in their conception of the relative importance of these. Hartley took
account only of Contiguity, or the repetition of impressions
synchronous or immediately successive; the like is true of James Mill,
though, incidentally, he made an express attempt to resolve the
received principle of Similarity, and through this the other principle
of Contrast, into his fundamental law--law of Frequency, as he
sometimes called it, because upon frequency, in conjunction with
vividness of impressions, the strength of association, in his view,
depended. In a sense of his own, Brown also, while accepting the
common Aristotelian enumeration of principles, inclined to the opinion
that "all suggestion may be found to depend on prior coexistence, or
at least on such proximity as is itself very probably a modification
of coexistence," provided account be taken of "the influence of
emotions and other feelings that are very different from ideas, as
when an analogous object suggests an analogous object by the influence
of an emotion which each separately may have produced before, and
which is, therefore, common to both." To the contrary effect, Spencer
maintained that the fundamental law of all mental association is that
presentations aggregate or cohere with their like in past experience,
and that, besides this law, there is in strictness no other, all
further phenomena of association being incidental. Thus in particular,
he would have explained association by Contiguity as due to the
circumstance of imperfect assimilation of the present to the past in
consciousness. A. Bain regarded Contiguity and Similarity logically,
as perfectly distinct principles, though in actual psychological
occurrence blending intimately with each other, contiguous trains
being started by a first (it may be, implicit) representation through
Similarity, while the express assimilation of present to past in
consciousness is always, or tends to be, followed by the revival of
what was presented in contiguity with that past.
The highest, philosophical interest, as distinguished from that which
is more strictly psychological, attaches to the mode of mental
association called Inseparable. The coalescence of mental states noted
by Hartley, as it had been assumed by Berkeley, was farther formulated
by James Mill in these terms:--
"Some ideas are by frequency and strength of association so closely
combined that they cannot be separated; if one exists, the other
exists along with it in spite of whatever effort we make to disjoin
them."--(_Analysis of the Human Mind_, 2nd ed. vol. i. p. 93.)