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80 galton.org
80 
Inquiries into Human Faculty
moment that the figure 6 happened to present itself to their minds, they
could say whether the image lay to the left or right of the ship, and
whether it was above or below the line of the horizon; they could always
point to a definite spot in space, and say with more or less precision that
that was the direction in which the image of the figure they were thinking
of, first appeared.
Now the strange psychological fact to which I desire to draw attention,
is that among persons who visualise figures clearly there are many who
notice that the image of the same figure invariably makes its first
appearance in the same direction, and at the same distance. Such a person
would always see the figure when it first appeared to him at (we may
suppose) one point of the compass to the left of the line between his eye
and the ship, at the level of the horizon, and at twenty feet distance.
Again, we may suppose that he would see the figure 7 invariably half a
point to the left of the ship, at an altitude equal to the sun’s diameter
above the horizon, and at thirty feet distance; similarly for all the other
figures. Consequently, when he thinks of the series of numerals 1, 2, 3, 4,
etc., they show themselves in a definite pattern that always occupies an
identical position in his field of view with respect to the direction in which
he is looking.
Those who do not see figures with the same objectivity, use
nevertheless the same expressions with reference to their mental field of
view. They can draw what they see in a manner fairly satisfactory to
themselves, but they do not locate it so strictly in reference to their axis of
sight and to the horizontal plane that passes through it. It is with them as
in dreams, the imagery is before and around, but the eyes during sleep are
turned inwards and upwards.
The pattern or “ Form” in which the numerals are seen is by no means
the same in different persons, but assumes the most grotesque variety of
shapes, which run in all sorts of angles, bends, curves, and zigzags as
represented in the various illustrations to this chapter. The drawings,
however, fail in giving the idea of their apparent size to those who see
them; they usually occupy a wider range than the mental eye can take in at
a single glance, and compel it to wander. Sometimes they are nearly
panoramic.
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