galton.org 87
Number-Forms
87
from the picture on their retina. Whenever a man first ventures up in a
balloon, or is let, like a gatherer of sea-birds’ eggs, over the face of a
precipice, he is conscious of having acquired a much extended experience
of the third dimension of space.
The character of the forms under which historical dates are visualised
contrast strongly with the ordinary Number-Forms. They are sometimes
copied from the numerical ones, but they are more commonly based both
clearly and consciously on the diagrams used in the schoolroom or on
some recollected fancy.
The months of the year are usually perceived as ovals, and they as
often follow one another in a reverse direction to those of the figures on
the clock, as in the same direction. It is a common, peculiarity that the
months do not occupy equal spaces, but those that are most important to
the child extend more widely than the rest. There are many varieties as to
the topmost month; it is by no means always January.
The Forms of the letters of the alphabet, when imaged, as they
sometimes are, in that way, are equally easy to be accounted for, therefore
the ordinary Number-Form is the oldest of all, and consequently the most
interesting. I suppose that it first came into existence when the child was
learning to count, and was used by him as a natural mnemonic diagram, to
which he referred the spoken words “one,” “two,” “three,” etc. Also, that
as soon as he began to read, the visual symbol figures supplanted their
verbal sounds, and permanently established themselves on the Form. It
therefore existed at an earlier date than that at which the child began to
learn to read; it represents his mental processes at a time of which no
other record remains; it persists in vigorous activity, and offers itself
freely to our examination.
The teachers of many schools and colleges, some in America, have
kindly questioned their pupils for me; the results are given in the two first
columns of Plate I. It appears that the proportion of young people who see
numerals in Forms is greater than that of adults. But for the most part their
Forms are neither well defined nor complicated. I conclude that when they
are too faint to be of service they are gradually neglected, and become
wholly forgotten; while
