OF SELBORNE 195 



decent reserve more may be said than can with truth of 

 every individual of her sex ; since she is — — — — 



" — — — — — — quae nee reticere loquenti, 



Nee prior ipsa loqui didicit resonabilis echo." 



I am, etc. 



P.S. The classic reader will, I trust, pardon the following 

 lovely quotation, so finely describing echoes, and so poeti- 

 cally accounting for their causes from popular superstition : 



"Quae bene quom videas, rationem reddere possis 

 Tute tibi atque aliis, quo pacto per loca sola 

 Saxa pareis formas verborum ex ordine reddant, 

 Palanteis comites quom monteis inter opacos 

 (^uaerimus, et magna disperses voce ciemus. 

 Sex etiam, aut septem loca vidi reddere voces 

 Unam quom jaceres : ita colles collibus ipsis 

 Verba repulsantes iterabant dicta referre. 

 Haec loca capripedes Satyros, Nymphasque tenere 

 Finitimi fingunt, et Faunos esse loquuntur; 

 Quorum noctivago strepitu, ludoque jocanti 

 Adfirmant volgo taciturna silentia rumpi, 

 Chordarumque sonos fieri, dulceisque querelas, 

 Tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum : 

 Et genus agricolum lat^ sentiscere, quom Pan 

 Pinea semiferi capitis velamina quassans, 

 Unco saepe labro calamos percurrit hianteis, 

 Fistula silvestrem ne cesset fundere musam. ' 



Lucretius, Lib. iv. 1. 576, 



LETTER XXXIX 

 TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES HARRINGTON 



Selborne, May 13, 1778. 



Dear Sir, 



Among the many singularities attending those amusing 

 birds the swifts, I am now confirmed in the opinion that 

 we have every year the same number of pairs invariably ; 

 at least the result of my inquiry has been exactly the 



