20 BIRDS AND MAN 



their lives and fortunes. Even worse than the re- 

 ticent, the superstitious, and the simply unintelligent, 

 is the highly imaginative person who is only too 

 ready to answer all inquiries, who catches at what 

 you say in explanation, divines what you want, and 

 instantly (and unconsciously) invents something 

 to tell you. 



But we may, I think, take it for granted that the 

 faculty of retaining sounds is as universal as that of 

 retaining sights, although, speaking generally, the 

 impressions of sounds are less perfect and lasting 

 than those which relate to the higher, more intel- 

 lectual sense of vision ; also that this power varies 

 greatly in different persons. Furthermore, we see 

 in the case of musical composers, and probably of 

 most musicians who are devoted to their art, that 

 this faculty is capable of being trained and developed 

 to an extraordinary degree of efficiency. The com- 

 poser sitting pen in hand to write his score in his 

 silent room hears the voices and the various instru- 

 ments, the solos and orchestral sounds, which are 

 in his thoughts. It is true that he is a creator, and 

 listens mentally to compositions that have never 

 been previously heard ; but he cannot imagine, or 

 cannot hear mentally, any note or combination of 

 notes which he has never heard with his physical 



