Inquiries into human faculty and its development / by Francis Galton.

Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Inquiries into human faculty and its development / by Francis Galton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    clearness of expression. Their phrase, figurez-vous, or picture to yourself, seems to express their dominant mode of perception. Our equivalent of imagine is ambiguous. It is among uncivilised races that natural differ- ences in the visualising faculty are most conspicuous. Many of them make carvings and rude illustrations, but only a few have the gift of carrying a picture in their mind's eye, judging by the completeness and firmness of their designs, which show no trace of having been elaborated in that step-by-step manner which is characteristic of draughtsmen who are not natural artists. Among the races who are thus gifted are the commonly despised, but, as I confidently maintain from personal knowledge of them, the much under- rated Bushmen of South Africa. They are no doubt deficient in the natural instincts necessary to civilisa- tion, for they detest a regular life, they are inveterate thieves, and are incapable of withstanding the temp- tation of strong drink. On the other hand, they have few superiors among barbarians in the ingenious methods by which they supply the wants of a diffi- cult existence, and in the effectiveness and nattiness of their accoutrements. One of their habits is to draw pictures on the walls of caves of men and animals, and to colour them with ochre. These drawings were once numerous, but they have been sadly destroyed by advancing colonisation, and few of them, and indeed few wild Bushmen, now exist. Fortunately a large and valuable collection of fac-