418 Transac tions . — Miscellaneous . 



After all those people have passed away, and unless some 

 person with the heart of a Goth makes use of them as strain- 

 ing-posts in a dividing-fence, or to suit some other emergency, 

 they will long stand erect, like two stern old warriors, exposing 

 their weather-beaten sides to the scorching rays of the sun or 

 the cold blasts of the pitiless storms. Yes, there they stand 

 in their solitude, keeping watch and ward over these old 

 deserted pas ; and, as tinger-posts, they may yet remain long 

 enough to tell those who come after us of a once-numerous 

 people the last of whom will then long enough have been laid 

 in the dust. 



Abt. LVI. — On the Mental Effects of certain Voivel-sounds. 



By E. CopELAND Hakding. 

 [Bead before the Hatvke's Bay Philosophical Institute, 13th August, 1888.1 



There is in souls a sympathy with sounds. 

 And as the mind is pitched the ear is pleased 

 With melting airs or martial, brisk or grave. 

 Some chord in unison with what we hear 

 Is touched within us, and the heart replies. 



CowPEE : The Winter Walk. 



I WOULD ask you to accompany me to-night into one of the less- 

 trodden byways of language. For aught I know the subject 

 may have been dealt with by those of wider knowledge and 

 research ; but, if so, I have not met with any record of their 

 observations and conclusions. It touches upon one of the 

 more subtle external qualities of poetry and oratory — the 

 mental effects of certain vowel-sounds. 



It is not a new observation that there is a close corre- 

 spondence between poetry and music, and in order to establish 

 my position I shall treat that correspondence as an actual 

 reality, and not as a mere imaginary parallel. As Pope has 



said, — 



Music resembles poetry — in each 



Are nameless graces which no methods teach, 



And which a master-hand alone can reach. 



Essay on Criticism. 



And a great living poet has drawn a beautiful parallel between 

 the relation of poetry and music and the relation of the 

 sexes: — 



Till at the last she set herself to man, 



Like perfect music unto noble words. 



Tennyson : The Princess. 



The same image is to be found in Dryden and other English 

 poets. 



