112 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



STRANGE PERSONIFICATIONS. 



BY M. TH. FLOURNOY. 



WHILE cases of colored audition and visual schemes are 

 quite frequent, we have fewer instances of that special 

 kind of synopsy which I call personification, because it consists, 

 in its typical form, in the concrete representation of a personage 

 sometimes of an animal or a thing being regularly awakened 

 by a word that has no comprehensible relation with its curious 

 associate. This sort of personification in its marked degrees is 

 rare, and in the few instances that have come under my knowl- 

 edge has been applied to the days of the week. 



In M. E. F , student in letters, nineteen years old, the fig- 

 ures of persons of very definite pose and occupation are provoked 

 by various suggestions ; among others, by those of the days of 

 the week. Monday and Tuesday are to him a young man of 

 serious aspect, with his forefinger on his eye dark weather. 

 Wednesday is a young man in the act of stealing something 

 behind him, stooping down and putting his arms between his legs 



to take it. M. F does not see what this man takes, and does 



not know what it is ; dark weather. Thursday is a man turning 

 the knob of the kitchen door to go through that room to the next 

 one. Friday is a man selling something on a wagon, which he 



holds with his hands. The object is indistinct, and M. F does 



not know what it is, but in his mind the man is the Wednesday 

 man, and is selling the thing he stole on that day. The weather 

 is clear. Saturday is a man falling against a door and putting 

 both hands forward to push himself back, falling again, and so 

 on several times. He is doing this for amusement. Sunday is a 

 man buttoning his cuffs, and the weather is fine. 



It will be seen that in respect to their psychological nature 

 these personifications are a triple mixture of visual representa- 

 tions, of interpretative ideas (the idea of Wednesday's man steal- 

 ing an object which is the same unknown thing that he sells on 

 Friday, etc.), and of general impressions corresponding with the 

 weather that is prevailing except Thursday and Saturday, 

 which have no weather assigned to them. The visual represent- 

 atives of mental images do not take on the character of hallu- 

 cinations, but remain simple mental images. These personages 

 have no color, and their dress is extremely indefinite, but their 



figures are very sharply defined. M. F distinguishes all these 



details, and perceives clearly the expression, which is always 

 serious (with the exception of Wednesday, who laughs while he 

 is stealing his object). The localization of these visual images is 

 not less precise. The man of Monday, for example, appears to 



