lity to some persons; to myself
the system is of no avail whatever, but simply a stumbling-block,
nevertheless I am well aware that many of my early associations are
fanciful and silly.

The question remains, why do the lines of the Forms run in such
strange and peculiar ways? the reply is, that different persons have
natural fancies for different lines and curves. Their handwriting
shows this, for handwriting is by no means solely dependent on the
balance of the muscles of the hand, causing such and such strokes to
be made with greater facility than others. Handwriting is greatly
modified by the fashion of the time. It is in reality a compromise
between what the writer most likes to produce, and what he can
produce with the greatest ease to himself. I am sure, too, that I
can trace a connection between the general look of the handwritings
of my various correspondents and the lines of their Forms. If a
spider were to visualise numerals, we might expect he would do so in
some web-shaped fashion, and a bee in hexagons. The definite
domestic architecture of all animals as seen in their nests and
holes shows the universal tendency of each species to pursue their
work according to certain definite lines and shapes, which are to
them instinctive and in no way, we may presume, logical. The same is
seen in the groups and formations of flocks of gregarious animals
and in the flights of gregarious birds, among which the wedge-shaped
phalanx of wild ducks and the huge globe of soaring storks are as
remarkable as any.

I used to be much amused during past travels in watching the
different lines of search that were pursued by different persons in
looking for objects lost on the ground, when the encampment was
being broken up. Different persons had decided idiosyncracies, so
much so that if their travelling line of sight could have scored a
mark on the ground, I think the system of each person would have
been as characteristic as his Number-Form.

Children learn their figures to some extent by those on the clock. I
cannot, however, trace the influence of the clock on the Forms in
more than a few cases. In two of them the clock-face actually appears,
in others it has evidently had a strong influence, and in the rest
its influence is indicated, but nothing more. I suppose that the
complex Roman numerals in the clock do not fit in sufficiently well
with the simpler ideas based upon the Arabic ones.

The other traces of the origin