PREFACE 



About thirteen years agOj I happened to be in the 

 office of Mr. A. K. Smith, at Melbourne, Australia, and 

 while there, I heard a clock which was in the office, 

 strike the chimes just previous to striking the hour. 

 It appeared to me that the notes of the chimes were 

 peculiarly clear and perfect, and what then seemed to 

 me as being singular, was that with each note a flash of 

 color appeared before my eyes. At that time I had 

 not heard of any analogy existing between sound and 

 color, but I, nevertheless, became convinced that there 

 was an analogy, and communicated my ideas to a num- 

 ber of my acquaintances. I believe that the fact of 

 the existence of an analogy between sound and color 

 was first actually demonstrated by some English philo- 

 sopher, about a year after my experience of the chimes. 

 However that may be, my discovery made a great 

 impression on my mind and led me into many curious 

 speculations, that always had a bearing as to the cause 

 of life and motion. But all these speculations were vague 

 or at all events only sufficiently clear to stand as con- 



