THE COLOR OF WORDS. 259 



shapes and orders in which the digits or numbers arrange themselves, 

 of which a considerable variety have been described by Mr, Galton and 

 his correspondents, and by M. Jaqiies Bertillon. One correspondent re- 

 ported to Mr. Galton that when a child he counted by imaginary cards 

 from one to ten, and his little boy in the same way used an imaginary 

 domino ; another pictured numbers in groups of so many dots ; to the 

 same person, the numbers, from the part they played in the multipli- 

 cation-table, had been personified. Thus, 9 was a wonderful being 

 of whom he felt almost afraid ; 8 was his wife ; " and there used 

 always to seem a fitness in 9X9 being so much more than 8x8 " ; 7 

 was masculine ; 6, of no particular sex, but gentle and straightfor- 

 ward ; 3, a feeble edition of 9, and generally mean ; 2, young and 

 sprightly ; 1, a commonplace drudge. " In this style the whole multi- 

 plication-table consisted of the actions of living persons, whom I liked 

 and disliked, and who had, though only vaguely, human forms." Mr. 

 George Bidder, who was known in early life as " the calculating-boy," 

 saw the numbers arranged in their order along a concavely-scalloped 

 curve, the first part of which, comprising the first ten numbers, fol- 

 lowed the arrangement of figures on a clock-face. 



Another person's experience was to see the numbers arranged in 

 association with certain colors up to 108. After 108 the notion of 

 place became hazy and indistinct, though visualization was still pos- 

 sible, with effort. This writer as a child had a great liking for 6, 

 arising, possibly, from his desire to be six years old. He was also 

 very fond of blue, the color which he associated with 6. One of 

 this writer's sisters saw numerals in a differently arranged diagram, 

 and the figures themselves colored, each its own color. Another sister 

 and a brother saw the figures in diagrams, but less clearly. The 

 effects of heredity were strongly marked in two families of cousins. 

 A sister in the first family saw the figures up to 200 in a rather com- 

 plicated arrangement in a kind of cloud-land of different degrees of 

 shading"; another sister saw them ascending in a directly perpendicular 

 line in front of the eye up to 1,000, when they became vague and 

 seemed to turn to the left. A brother saw them in a straight line 

 from left to right, black, on a ground varying in illumination — the 

 millions in a vague, bright distance to the right. Other members of 

 these families associated them with figures or with linear arrange- 

 ments peculiar to themselves. 



To another writer the figures presented themselves in an intricate 

 curve, in which " the zero-point never moves ; it is in my mind ; it is 

 that point of space known as ' here,' while all other points are outside, 

 or ' there.' When I was a child, the zero-point began the curve ; now 

 it is a fixed point in an infinite circle." To another, who saw the nu- 

 merals arranged for the most part in a regular row, like park palings, 

 they appeared as far as 12 to be concealed in black shadow ; from 12 

 to 20 was illuminated space, in which he could distinguish no divisions. 



