THE VISIONS OF SANE PERSONS. 521 



seers. They imagined at first that everybody else had the same way 

 of regarding things as themselves. Then they betrayed their pecul- 

 iarities by some chance remark which called forth a stare of surprise, 

 followed by ridicule and a sharp scolding for their silliness, so that the 

 poor little things shrunk back into themselves, and never ventured 

 again to allude to their inner world. I will quote just one of many 

 similar letters as a sample. I received this, together with much in- 

 teresting information, immediately after a lecture I gave last autumn 

 to the British Association at Swansea,* in which I had occasion to 

 speak of the Number forms. The writer says : 



I had no idea, for many years, that every one did not imagine numbers in the 

 same positions as those in which they appear to me. One unfortunate day I 

 spoke of it, and was sharply rebuked for my absurdity. Being a very sensitive 

 child, I felt this acutely, but nothing ever shook my belief that, absurd or not, I 

 always saw numbers in this particular w^ay. I began to be ashamed of what I 

 considered a peculiarity, and to imagine myself, from this and various other 

 mental beliefs and states, as somewhat isolated and peculiar. At your lecture 

 the other night, though I am now over twenty-nine, the memory of my childish 

 misery at the dread of being peculiar came over me so strongly that I felt I 

 must thank you for proving that, in this particular, at any rate, my case is most 

 common. 



The next form of vision of which I will speak is the instant asso- 

 ciation of color with sound, which characterizes a small percentage of 

 adults, but apears to be rather common, though in an ill-developed 

 degree, among children. I can here appeal not only to my own col- 

 lection of facts, but to those of others, for the subject has latterly 

 excited some interest in Germany. The first widely known case was 

 that of the brothers Nussbaumer, published in 1873 by Professor 

 Bruhl, of Vienna, of which the English reader will find an account in 

 the last volume of Lewis's " Problems of Life and Mind," page 280! 

 Since then many occasional notices of similar associations have ap- 

 peared, but I was not aware that it had been inquired into on a large 

 scale by any one but myself. However, I was gratified by meeting 

 with a pamphlet a few weeks ago, just published in Leipsic by two 

 Swiss investigators, Messrs. Bleuier and Lehmann. Their collection 

 of cases is fully as large as my own, and their results in the more im- 

 portant matters are similar to mine. One of the two authors had the 

 faculty very strongly, and the other had not ; so they worked con- 

 jointly with advantage. As my present object is to subordinate de- 

 tails to the general impression that I wish to convey of the visionary 

 tendency of certain minds, I will simply remark, first, that the per- 

 sistence of the color association with sounds is fully as remarkable as 

 that of the Number form with numbers. Secondly, that the vowel- 

 sounds chiefly evoke them. Thirdly, that the seers are invariably 

 most minute in their description of the precise tint and hue of the 



* See "Fortnightly Review," September, 1880. 



