66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Between the first and last quartiles extends the broad middle class. 

 It includes the two middle quarters, or the central half of the popula- 

 tion, whose characteristics are pretty uniform ; it is at the beginning 

 and end of the book that the exceptional cases lie in this, as in all other 

 similar collections of statistics. 



The medium quality of mental imagery among Englishmen may 

 be briefly described as fairly vivid, but incomplete. The part of the 

 picture that is well defined at any one moment is more contracted 

 than it would be in a real scene ; but, by moving the mental eye from 

 point to point, the whole of the image, so far as it is remembered at 

 all, may be successively brought into view. If this description be 

 heightened a little, it will suit the high quartile ; if it be lowered a lit- 

 tle, it will suit the low quartile, so that with small variations it will 

 apply to the whole of the middle class. When we arrive at the high 

 and low octiles, the tenor of the returns is considerably changed ; but 

 we will pass by them and rest at the sub-octiles. At the highest of 

 these the image is firm and clear, at the lowest there is scarcely any 

 image at all. 



This brief statement gives a scientifically exact idea of the distri- 

 bution of the faculty among the inner fourteen in every sixteen English- 

 men. I do not go further here, because I wish to specify the extent 

 to which the faculty generally admits of being educated, and not to 

 hold out ideals which are impossible of attainment except by very few. 

 I shall submit direct evidence of what teaching can accomplish, but it 

 will I am sure be allowed, in the mean time, that there is a probability 

 of being able to educate a faculty among the great majority of men 

 to the degree in which it manifests itself, without any education at 

 all, in at least one person out of every sixteen. When speaking, as 

 I shall soon do, of the various qualities of the faculty, I shall keep, as 

 now, as far as possible to the commoner cases. 



The power of visualizing is higher in the female sex than in the 

 male, and is somewhat, but not much, higher in public-school boys 

 than in men, I have, however, a few clear cases in which its power 

 has greatly increased with advancing years. There is reason to be- 

 lieve that it is very high in some young children, who seem to spend 

 years of difficulty in distinguishing between the subjective and objec- 

 tive world. Language and book-learning certainly tend to dull it. 



The visualizing faculty is a natural gift, and, like all natural gifts, 

 has a tendency to be inherited. In this faculty the tendency to inher- 

 itance is exceptionally strong, as I have abundant evidence to prove, 

 especially in respect to certain rather rare peculiarities, of which I shall 

 speak, and which, when they exist at all, are usually found among two, 

 three, or more brothers and sisters, parents, children, uncles and aunts, 

 and cousins. 



Since families differ so much in respect to this gift, we may sup- 

 pose that races would also differ, and there can be no doubt that such 



