Mr Dugald Stewart on Ventriloquism. 247 



his lips, and eyes, and gestures, while another, unseen, sup- 

 plies the music with his voice. The deception in such cases, 

 it is well known, is so complete (at least at first) as to impose 

 on the nicest ear and quickest eye. The case I suspect to be 

 very similar with the deceptions of the Ventriloquist ; whose 

 art seems to me to amount chiefly to a certain degree of ad- 

 dress or trick, in misleading the imagination with respect to di- 

 rection.* The rest resolves entirely into a particuliar modifi- 

 cation of mimicry — that of the signs of' distance — superadded 

 to the other powers which mimics in general possess. Among 

 these powers, that which ventriloquists seem in general most 

 carefully to cultivate, is the power of imitating the modifica- 

 tion of sounds which arises from their obstruction ; of imitating, 

 for example, the voice of a person heard from the adjoining 

 apartment, or from the floor below ; or the rattling of a carriage 

 as it passes along the street. 



The deception, after all, has but narrow limits ; and, I sus- 

 pect, owes no inconsiderable part of its effect to the sudden 

 surprise which it occasions. It may make up completely for a 

 small difference of direction, but is easily detected, if the dif- 

 ference be considerable, and if the experiment be continued 

 for a length of time. Accordingly, it is only in very large 

 theatres, that the division of labour, which I have just now 

 mentioned in the art of the opera-singer, has been attempted 

 with any considerable degree of success. In the progress of 

 the entertainment, I have, in general, become distinctly sen- 

 sible of the imposition ; and have sometimes wondered that it 

 should have misled me for a moment. 



It is generally imagined that ventriloquists possess some pe- 

 culiar organic faculty which is denied to other men. By the 

 ancients they were supposed to have a power of fetching a voice 

 from the belly or stomach. Hence they were called 'E.yyaerpiwki. 



* Mr Gough, who had the misfortune to be blind from his infancy, 

 could not possibly form any judgment, from his own experience, of the 

 length to which this last species of deception may be carried by the help of 

 false intimations or signs skilfully addressed to the eye. It is not, there- 

 fore, surprising, that he should have been led to adopt some of those con- 

 clusions which I have already taken the liberty to controvert. His paper 

 on the whole, reflects the highest honour, both on his philosophical saga- 

 city, and on his talents as an accurate and skilful observer. 



