OF SELBORNE. 251 



which live much on hazle-nuts; and yet they open them each 

 in a different way. The first, after rasping off the small end, 

 splits the shell in two with his long fore-teeth, as a man does 

 with his knife ; the second nibbles a hole with his teeth, so 

 regular as if drilled with a wimble, and yet so small that one 

 would wonder how the kernel can be extracted through it ; 

 while the last picks an irregular ragged hole with it's bill : 

 but as this artist has no paws to hold the nut firm while he 

 pierces it, like an adroit workman, he fixes it, as it were in a 

 vice, in some cleft of a tree, or in some crevice ; when, 

 standing over it, he perforates the stubborn shell. We have 

 often placed nuts in the chink of a gate-post where nut- 

 hatches have been known to haunt, and have always found 

 that those birds have readily penetrated them. While at 

 work they make a rapping noise that may be heard at a 

 considerable distance. 



You that understand both the theory and practical part of 

 music may best inform us why harmony or melody should so 

 strangely affect some men, as it were by recollection, for days 

 after a concert is over. What I mean the following passage 

 will most readily explain : 



" Prsehabebat porro vocibus humanis, instrumentisque har- 

 " monicis musicam illam avium : non quod ali quoque non 

 " delectaretur ; sed quod ex musica human a relinqueretur in 

 " ammo continens quaedam, attentionemque et somnum con- 

 " turbans agitatio ; dum ascensus, exscensus, tenores, ac mu- 

 " tationes illse sonorum, et consonantiarum euntque, redeunt- 

 " que per J>hantasiam : cum nihil tale relinqui possit ex 

 " modulationibus avium, quse, quod non sunt perinde a nobis 

 " imitabiles, non possunt perinde internam facultatem com- 

 " movere." Gassendus in Vita PeireskiL 



This curious quotation strikes me much by so well repre- 

 senting my own case, and by describing what I have so often 

 felt, but never could so well express. When I hear fine 

 music I am haunted with passages therefrom night and day ; 

 and especially at first waking, which, by their importunity, 

 give me more uneasiness than pleasure : elegant lessons still 

 tease my imagination, and recur irresistibly to my recollection 



