86 NATURAL HISTORY. 



a flame ; and you shall hear the sound with little 

 difference front the sound in the air. 



136. The pneumatical part which is in all tangi 

 ble bodies, and hath some affinity with the air, per- 

 formeth, in some degree, the parts of the air ; as 

 when you knock upon an empty barrel, the sound is 

 in part created by the air on the outside ; and in part 

 by the air in the inside : for the sound will be greater 

 or lesser, as the barrel is more empty or more full ; 

 but yet the sound participateth also with the spirit 

 in the wood through which it passeth, from the out 

 side to the inside : and so it cometh to pass in the 

 chiming of bells on the outside ; where also the 

 sound passeth to the inside : and a number of other 

 like instances, whereof we shall speak more when 

 we handle the communication of sounds. 



137. It were extreme grossness to think, as we 

 have partly touched before, that the sound in strings 

 is made or produced between the hand and the 

 string, or the quill and the string, or the bow and 

 the string, for those are but &quot; vehicula motus,&quot; 

 passages to the creation of the sound, the sound being 

 produced between the string and the air ; and that 

 not by any impulsion of the air from the first motion 

 of the string ; but by the return or result of the 

 string, which was strained by the touch, to his for 

 mer place : which motion of result is quick and 

 sharp ; whereas the first motion is soft and dull. 

 So the bow tortureth the string continually, and 

 thereby holdeth it in a continual trepidation. 



