OF SELBORXE. 200 



LETTER XXXVIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



" Forte puer, comitum seductus ab agmine tido, 

 " Dixerat, ecquis adest ? et ; adest, responderat echo. 

 " Hie stupet ; utque aciern partes divisit in oinnes ; 

 " Voce, veni, clamat inagna. Vocat ilia vocantem." 



Selborne, Feb. 12, 1778. 

 DEAR SIR, 



IN a district so diversified as this, so full of hollow vales, and 

 hanging woods, it is no wonder that echoes should abound. 

 Many we have discovered that return the cry of a pack of 

 dogs, the notes of a hunting-horn, a tunable ring of bells, or 

 the melody of birds, very agreeably : but we were still at a 

 loss for a polysyllabical, articulate echo, till a young gentle- 

 man, who had parted from his company in a summer evening 

 walk, and was calling after them, stumbled upon a very 

 curious one in a spot where it might least be expected. At 

 first he was much surprised, and could not be persuaded but 

 that he was mocked by some boy ; but, repeating his trials in 

 several languages, and finding his respondent to be a very 

 adroit polyglot, he then discerned the deception. 



This echo in an evening, before rural noises cease, would 

 repeat ten syllables most articulately and distinctly, especially 

 if quick dactyls were chosen. The last syllables of 



" Tityre, tu patulae recubans " 



were as audibly and intelligibly returned as the first: and 

 thoro is no doubt, could trial have been made, but that at 

 midnight, when the air is very elastic, and a dead stillness 

 prevails, one or two syllables more might have been obtained; 

 but the distance rendered so late an experiment very incon- 

 venient. 



Quick dactyls, we observed, succeeded best ; for when we 



