CENTURY III. 141 



out any new scaling, shew apparently they cannot be 

 impressions. 



289. All sounds are suddenly made, and do sud 

 denly perish : but neither that, nor the exquisite dif 

 ferences of them, is matter of so great admiration : 

 for the quaverings and warblings in lutes and pipes 

 are as swift ; and the tongue, which is no very fine 

 instrument, doth in speech make no fewer motions 

 than there be letters in all the words which are ut 

 tered. But that sounds should not only be so 

 speedily generated, but carried so far every way in 

 such a momentary time, deserveth more admiration. 

 As for example, if a man stand in the middle of a field 

 and speak aloud, he shall be heard a furlong in round ; 

 and that shall be in articulate sounds ; and those shall 

 be entire in every little portion of the air ; and this 

 shall be done in the space of less than a minute. 



290. The sudden generation and perishing of 

 sounds must be one of these two ways. Either that 

 the air suffereth some force by sound, and then 

 restoreth itself as water doth ; which being divided, 

 maketh many circles, till it restore itself to the na 

 tural consistence : or otherwise, that the air doth 

 willingly imbibe the sound as grateful, but cannot 

 maintain it ; for that the air hath, as it should seem, 

 a secret and hidden appetite of receiving the sound 

 at the first ; but then other gross and more mate- 

 riate qualities of the air straightways suffocate it, 

 like unto flame, which is generated with alacrity, 

 but straight quenched by the enmity of the air or 

 other ambient bodies. 



