LXXX.] 



OF SELBORNE. 



221 



Should any gentleman of fortune think an echo in his park or 

 outlet a pleasing incident, lie might build one at little or no 

 expense. For whenever he had occasion for a new barn, stable, 

 dog -kennel, or the like structure, it would be only needful to 

 erect this building on the gentle declivity of a hill, with a like 

 rising opposite to it, at a few hundred yards distance ; and 

 perhaps success might be the easier insured could some canal, 

 lake, or stream, intervene. From a seat at the centrum plwnimm 

 he and his friends might amuse themselves sometimes of an 

 evening with the prattle of this loquacious nymph ; of whose 

 complacency and decent reserve more maybe said than can with 

 truth of every individual of her sex ; since she is " always ready 

 with her vocal response, but never intrusive :"- 



qua? nee reticere loquenti, 

 Nee prior ipsa loqui didicit resonabilis echo." 



The classic reader will, I trust, pardon the following lovely 

 quotation, so finely describing echoes, and so poetically account- 

 ing for their causes : 



" Quse bene quoin videas, rationem reddere possis 

 Tute tibi atque aliis, quo pacto per loca sola 

 Saxa pareis forraas verborum ex ordine reddant, 

 Palanteis comites quom monteis inter opacos 

 Quaerimus, et magna disperos voce ciemus. 

 Sex etiam, aut septeui loca vidi reddere voces 

 Unain 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 late sentiscere, quom Pan 

 Pinea semiferi capitis velamina quassans, 

 Unco sajpe labro calamos percurrit hianteis, 

 Fistula silvestrem ne cesset fundere musam." 



(LUCRETIUS, lib. iv. 1. 576.) 



" This shows thee why, whilst men, through caves and groves 

 ( 'all their lost friends, or mourn unhappy loves, 



