Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/122

114 number permit glimpses into their origin; it is, for example, probable that habitual or verbal associations have had a part in suggesting the likeness of Sunday to a person buttoning his cuffs, and of Friday (vendredi) to a man selling (qui vend) something placed upon a van. The masculine or feminine character of the dress attributed to the letters seems to be suggested by the pronunciation (b, masculine; m, feminine, etc.). In like manner, the personification of the word college may be explained as a youth wearing a large white collar (col) turned back on his jacket as children's collars are. So the word cat (chat) brings up the image of a cat with a twist in its mouth, as if it were laughing, because, perhaps, M. F had an impediment in his speech in childhood which caused him to make a face when he tried to pronounce the letters ch. But, while M. F regards these explanations as very plausible, they are still only hypotheses to him; for he has no precise conviction, no sure recollection that such were indeed the causes of his inductions in these cases. The special incidents to which these speculations apply are relatively very few, and his speculations as a whole are entirely enigmatical.

Perhaps their origin will become a little less obscure if we make account of the exaggeration which follows a process in M. F that is familiar to us all in a lower degree. When we hear somebody we do not know spoken of, or when the author in a romance introduces a new character, we spontaneously form an idea of his appearance and moral qualities which is not exclusively based on what we are told of him, but in which our fancy involuntarily participates to a considerable extent. Yet this idea usually remains vague and indecisive till more ample information comes to it, susceptible of being modified and enriched according to the course of events. With M. F this fanciful anticipation of the facts operates with exceptional promptness, while the images it engenders are distinguished by a rare persistence. A proper name is enough to call up in him, without any known reason, a complete and precisely defined figure, which thenceforth continues so fast attached to the name that meeting with the person himself does not dissociate it. Thus, M. F conceived the two Coquelins, before he had seen them, by virtue of their identity of name, in exactly the same form and with identical heads. He was much surprised not to see me wearing the full black beard he had immediately given me the first time I was spoken of to him. I supposed the beard belonged to another person of his acquaintance whose name had some similarity in sound with mine; but he did not think this was the case, and could not give any explanation of the fact. He can not even tell whether it is the auditive perception of the name, or its appearance when written, or its articulation, or a mixture of all these that induces his