The Days of a Man 1861 



calling stories of adventure, which I illustrated by 

 rough drawings on a slate or on scraps of paper. My 

 particular cronies seemed to appreciate those efforts, 

 but both tales and pictures have been long since 

 forgotten by their author. In those days I read 

 eagerly the few books of travel I could secure, espe- 

 cially Dr. Kane's account of his polar expeditions. 

 Having dug out and equipped a toy boat, I named 

 Tb f "Red it the Red Eric, regretting, however, that it lacked 

 Eric " the "red cedar plankings" of Kane's little craft. 



A special idiosyncrasy of mine, never outgrown 

 and virtually never modified, is the feeling for color 

 in letters. This appeared as soon as I had anything 

 to do with the alphabet. Growing older, I was 

 surprised to find that some really intelligent people 

 fail to see that "S" is always a bright yellow, "R" 

 a vivid green, "X" and "Z" scarlet, "O" white, 

 'V and 'Y' blue, and so on. Such association 

 of color with letters is now known to be not in- 

 frequent, and goes by the clumsy technical name of 

 "False Pseudocbromcesthesia or "false color sense." This is 

 folor not really a perception of color, simply an association 

 with color, which appears in persons who are sensi- 

 tive in peculiar fashion to word and color values. 

 On this subject I have in later years written two 

 papers. It is first to be noted that the color scheme 

 of each person is a purely individual matter, not 

 derived from any objective source; also, that it is 

 perfectly clear and definite when first recognized 

 Tendency and does not change ; further, that the tendency is 

 inherited hereditary. When Eric, my youngest child, was 

 eight years old, not having previously referred to 

 this matter before him, I said: 'What color is 'A'?' 

 'Red," he promptly answered. I then obtained his 



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