LXXX.] 



OF SELBORNE. 



219 



distance is only 258 yards, or near 75 feet to each syllable. 

 Thus our measure falls short of the Doctor's, as five to eight : but 

 then it must be acknowledged that this caiidid philosopher was 

 convinced afterwards, that some latitude must be admitted of in 

 the distance of echoes according to time and place. 



When experiments of this sort are making, it should always 

 be remembered that weather and the time of day have a vast 

 influence on an echo ; for a dull, heavy, moist air deadens and 

 clogs the sound ; and hot sunshine renders the air thin and 

 weak, and deprives it of all its springiness ; and a ruffling wind 

 quite defeats the whole. In a still, clear, dewy evening the air 

 is most elastic ; and perhaps the later the hour the more so. 

 Echo has always been so amusing to the imagination, that the 

 poets have personified her ; and in their hands she has been the 

 occasion of many a beautiful fiction. Nor need the gravest man 

 be ashamed to appear taken with such a phenomenon, since it 

 may become the subject of philosophical or mathematical 

 inquiries. 



One should have imagined that echoes, if not entertaining, 

 must at least have been harmless and inoffensive ; yet Virgil 

 advances a strange notion, that they are injurious to bees. After 

 enumerating some probable and reasonable annoyances, such as 

 prudent owners would wish far removed from their bee-gardens, 

 he adds 



aut ubi concava pulsu 

 Saxa sonant, vocisque offensa resultat imago." ' 



[There is a natural occurrence to be met with upon the highest 

 part of our downs in hot summer days, which always amuses me 

 much, without giving me any satisfaction with respect to the 

 cause of it ; and that is a loud audible humming as of bees in 

 the air, though not one insect is to be seen. This sound is to be 



1 " Nor place them where too deep a water flows, 



Or where the yew, their poisonous neighbour, grows ; 

 Nor near the steaming stench of muddy ground, 

 Nor hollow rocJcs that render back the sound, 

 A nd double images of voice rebound." 



(DRTDEN'S Virg. Georg. iv. 47-50.) 



