i 4 2 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



between sounds and colours, should have the effect of a stain 

 of London mud." This is evidently an allusion to coloured 

 thinking; there is unfortunately no theory at all as yet, but 

 there is the fact of chromatic conception. Quite recently (191 3) 

 there was in the British Review (65) a vivacious article dealing 

 with coloured thinking from the popular standpoint. The 

 literature that contains the most systematic discussion of 

 coloured thinking is that of the decadent poets of France, the 

 symbolards, as they are called. Some account of their psycho- 

 chromes is given in Lombroso's Man of Genius (30). The 

 eccentric poet Paul Verlaine belonged to this school. It evi- 

 dently includes synaesthetes as well as coloured thinkers for, 

 for them, the organ is black, the harp white, the violin blue, 

 the trumpet red, and the flute yellow. Further they think of the 

 vowel " a " as black, " e " as white, " i " blue, " o " red, and " u " 

 yellow. One of them, Stephane Mallarme, has explained in his 

 pamphlet Traite du verbe how these things have come to be. 



The following verses — for I hesitate to call them poetry — 

 seem to be an attempt to express the associations of emotions 

 symbolised by the mental colourings of the vowels. 



VOYELLES 



A noir, E blanc, I rouge, U vert, O bleu, voyelles, 

 Je dirai quelque jour vos naissances latentes ; 

 A noir corset velu des mouches eclatantes 

 Qui bombillent autour des puanteurs cruelles. 



Golfes d'ombre E, candeur des vapeurs et des tentes, 

 Lances des guerriers fiers, rois blancs, frissons d'ombelles, 

 I pourpres, sang crache, rire des levres belles 

 Dans la colere les ivresses penitentes. 



U cycles vibrement divins des mers virides, 

 Paix des patis semes d'animaux, paix des rides 

 Que l'alchemie imprime aux grands fronts studieux. 



O, supreme clairon plein de strideurs etranges, 

 Silence traversee des Mondes et des Anges, 

 O l'omega, rayon violet des ses yeux. 



J. A. Rimbaud. 



We are now, perhaps, in a position to make some inquiry 

 into the characteristic features of coloured thinking. The first 

 point that strikes one is the very early age at which these 

 associations are fixed. This was a feature recognised by 

 Galton in his classic examination of the subject in 1883 (10). 



