68 galton.org
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Inquiries into Human Faculty
absent. One friend tells me that his dreams have not the hundredth part of
the vigour of his waking fancies.
The visualising and the identifying powers are by no means necessarily
combined. A distinguished writer on metaphysical topics assures me that
he is exceptionally quick at recognising a face that he has seen before, but
that be cannot call up a mental image of any face with clearness.
Some persons have the power of combining in a single perception
more than can be seen at any one moment by the two eyes. It is needless
to insist on the fact that all who have two eyes see stereoscopically, and
therefore somewhat round a corner. Children, who can focus their eyes
on very near objects, must be able to comprise in a single mental image
much more than a half of any small object they are examining. Animals
such as hares, whose eyes are set more on the side of the head than ours,
must be able to perceive at one and the same instant more of a panorama
than we can. I find that a few persons can, by what they often describe as
a kind of touch-sight, visualise at the same moment all round the image of
a solid body. Many can do so nearly, but not altogether round that of a
terrestrial globe. An eminent mineralogist assures me that he is able to
imagine simultaneously all the sides of a crystal with which he is familiar.
I may be allowed to quote a curious faculty of my own in respect to this. It
is exercised only occasionally and in dreams, or rather in nightmares, but
under those circumstances I am perfectly conscious of embracing an
entire sphere in a single perception. It appears to lie within my mental
eyeball, and to be viewed centripetally.
This power of comprehension is practically attained in many cases by
indirect methods. It is a common feat to take in the whole surroundings of
an imagined room with such a rapid mental sweep as to leave some doubt
whether it has not been viewed simultaneously. Some persons have the
habit of viewing objects as though they were partly transparent; thus, if
they so dispose a globe in their imagination as to see both its north and
south poles at the same time, they will not be able to see its equatorial
parts. They can also perceive all the rooms of an imaginary house by a
single mental glance, the walls and floors being as if made of glass. A
fourth class of persons have the habit of
