|
| | | | | | | | | | manhood, |
| | | | | | | | | | |
19 | 15 | -- | -- | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 14 | 11 | quite recent |
| | | | | | | | | | events. |
-----+--------|----+-----+----+-----+---+-----+----+-----+--------------+
124 | 100 | 22 | 18 | 23 | 19 |16 | 13 | 63 | 50 | Totals. |
=====+========+=========================================================+

It will be seen from the Table that out of the 48 earliest
associations no less than 12, or one quarter of them, occurred in
each of the four trials; of the 57 associations first formed in
manhood, 10, or about one-sixth of them, had a similar recurrence,
but as to the 19 other associations first formed in quite recent
times, not one of them occurred in the whole of the four trials.
Hence we may see the greater fixity of the earlier associations, and
might measurably determine the decrease of fixity as the date of
their first formation becomes less remote.

The largeness of the number 33 in the middle entry of the last
column but one, which disconcerts the run of the series, is wholly
due to a visual memory of places seen in manhood. I will not speak
about this now, as I shall have to refer to it farther on. Neglecting,
for the moment, this unique class of occurrences, it will be seen
that one-half of the associations date from the period of life
before leaving college; and it may easily be imagined that many of
these refer to common events in an English education. Nay further, on
looking through the list of all the associations it was easy to see
how they are pervaded by purely English ideas, and especially such
as are prevalent in that stratum of English society in which I was
born and bred, and have subsequently lived. In illustration of this,
I may mention an anecdote of a matter which greatly impressed me at
the time. I was staying in a country house with a very pleasant
party of young and old, including persons whose education and
versatility were certainly not below the social average. One evening
we played at a round game, which consisted in each of us drawing as
absurd a scrawl as he or she could, representing some historical
event; the pictures were then shuffled and passed successively from
hand to hand, every one writing down independently their
interpretation of the picture, as to what the hi