214 LETTERS ON NATUEAL MAGIC. 



voice which was his music," and invested her 

 with the desired reality. 



Say on, say on 

 I live but in the sound It is thy voice ! 



BYRON. 



The permanence of character thus impressed 

 upon speech exists only in those regions to whose 

 atmosphere our vocal organs are adapted. If 

 either the speaker or the hearer is placed in air 

 differing greatly in density from that to which 

 they are accustomed, the voice of the one will emit 

 different sounds, or the same sounds will produce 

 a different impression on the ear of the other. 

 But if both parties are placed in this new atmo- 

 sphere, their tones of communication will suffer 

 the most remarkable change. The two extreme 

 positions, where such effects become sufficiently 

 striking, are in the compressed air of the diving- 

 bell, when it is immersed to a great depth in the 

 sea, or in the rarefied atmosphere which prevails 

 on the summit of the Himalaya or the Andes. 



In the region of common life, and even at the 

 stillest hour of night, the ear seldom rests from 

 its toils. When the voice of man and the bustle 

 of his labours have ceased, the sounds of insect 

 life are redoubled; the night breeze awakens 

 among the rustling leaves, and the swell of the 

 distant ocean, and the sounds of the falling 

 cataract or of the murmuring brook, fill the air 

 with their pure and solemn music. The sublimity 

 of deep silence is not to be found even in the 

 steppes of the Volga, or in the forests of the 

 Orinoco. It can be felt only in those lofty regions 



Where the tops of the Andes, 

 Shoot soaringly forth. 



