64 galton.org
64
Inquiries into Human Faculty
99.
Extremely dim. The impressions are in all respects so
dim, vague, and
transient, that I doubt whether they can reasonably be called images. They
are incomparably less than those of dreams.
100. My powers are zero. To my consciousness there is almost no association of
memory with objective visual impressions. I recollect the breakfast-table,
but do not see it.
These quotations clearly show the great variety of natural powers of
visual representation, and though the returns from which they are taken
have, as I said, no claim to be those of 100 Englishmen taken at
haphazard, nevertheless, to the best of my judgment, they happen to differ
among themselves in much the same way that such returns would have
done. I cannot procure a strictly haphazard series for comparison, because
in any group of persons whom I may question there are always many too
indolent to reply, or incapable of expressing themselves, or who from
some fancy of their own are unwilling to reply. Still, as already
mentioned, I have got together several groups that approximate to what is
wanted, usually from schools, and I have analysed them as well as I could,
and the general result is that the above returns may be accepted as a fair
representation of the visualising powers of Englishmen. Treating these
according to the method described in the chapter of statistics, we have the
following results, in which, as a matter of interest, I have also recorded
the highest and the lowest of the series
Highest.—Brilliant, distinct, never blotchy.
First Suboctile.—The image once seen is perfectly clear and bright.
First Octile.—I
can see my breakfast-table or any equally familiar
thing with my mind’s eye quite as well in all particulars as I can do if the
reality is before me.
First Quartile.—Fairly clear; illumination of actual scene is fairly
represented. Well defined. Parts do not obtrude themselves, but attention
has to be directed to different points in succession to call up the whole.
Middlemost —Fairly clear. Brightness probably at least from one-half
to two-thirds of the original. Definition varies very much, one or two
objects being much more distinct than
