ILLUSIONS OF SOUND. 165 



of the direction and distance of sounds. Every 

 person must have noticed how a sound in their 

 own ears is often mistaken for some loud noise 

 moderated by the distance from which it is sup- 

 posed to come ; and the sportsman must have 

 frequently been surprised at the existence of 

 musical sounds humming remotely in the ex- 

 tended heath, when it was only the wind sound- 

 ing in the barrel of his gun. The great propor- 

 tion of apparitions that haunt old castles and 

 apartments associated with death, exist only in 

 the sounds which accompany them. The imagi- 

 nation even of the boldest inmate of a place 

 hallowed by superstition, will transfer some 

 trifling sound near his own person to a direction 

 and to a distance very different from the truth, 

 and the sound which otherwise might have no 

 peculiar complexion will derive another character 

 from its new locality. Spurning the idea of a 

 supernatural origin, he determines to unmask the 

 spectre, and grapple with it in its den. All the 

 inmates of the house are found to be asleep 

 even the quadrupeds are in their lair there is 

 not a breath of wind to ruffle the lake that 

 reflects through the casement the reclining cres- 

 cent of the night; and the massive walls in 

 which he is enclosed forbid the idea that he has 

 been disturbed by the warping of panelling or 

 the bending of partitions. His search is vain; 

 and he remains master of his own secret, till he 

 has another opportunity of investigation. The 

 same sound again disturbs him, and, modified 

 probably by his own position at the time, it may 

 perhaps appear to come in a direction slightly 

 different from the last. His searches are resumed, 



