 So when Gerard claims that the perceptions of taste can be traced to “certain exertions of imagination,” the exertions he has in mind are acts of association. The idea, roughly, is this. The reducibility of taste implies that the perceptions of taste, which are pleasures, are not natural to their objects in the way Hutcheson, for example, supposed. Objects of taste must, in other words, acquire their pleasurability, and association is the mechanism by which they do so. Just how they do so varies, and the variations are too numerous for cataloguing here. There is, however, a basic mechanism to which Gerard recurs often in his explanations. It seems that the mind forges very strong associations between its own processes and their objects, such that any pleasure natural to a mental process will transfer to its object. It also seems that any process that requires the mind “to exert its activity, and put forth its strength, in order to surmount any difficulty,” is naturally pleasurable, as is the mind’s consciousness of its success in surmounting any difficulty (Gerard 1759, 3). Hence any object whose processing is difficult enough to require the relevant exertion, but not so difficult as to prevent its success, will give pleasure (Gerard 1759, 3–4). Novel objects give pleasure because their unfamiliarity renders their conception just difficult enough (Gerard 1759, 5–6). Sublime objects give pleasure because their sheer scale renders their conception just difficult enough (Gerard 1759, 14). Imitations give pleasure because marking resemblances between them and their originals is just difficult enough (Gerard 1759, 49–51). And ridiculous (that is, humorous) objects give pleasure because marking dissonance or inconsistency amongst their elements is just difficult enough (Gerard 1759, 66–69).