XIV 

 COUNTRY SOUNDS 



MAN'S resting instinct is not strongly devel- 

 oped, and even those who are not tethered 

 to toil are apt to go on working far too long. The 

 stimulus of psychological motives is often strong 

 enough to make us disregard biological warnings, 

 and there are familiar devices, such as a pipe, 

 by which fatigue signals can be muffled. But 

 one of the well-known symptoms of approaching 

 the danger-zone of fatigue is a hyper-sensitiveness 

 to sounds, especially noises, to which unfagged 

 brains with plenty of energy to spare are quite 

 indifferent. Cases have been recorded of the jaded 

 hearing the ringing of the door-bell in a house many 

 yards off, and when ordinary urban sounds 

 begin to be an unusual source of irritation it is a 

 hint to those who can that they should seek the 

 country. For it is beyond doubt that part of a 

 country holiday is in the rest to the ears. The 

 great hush that wraps the hills is more refreshing 

 than sleep. 



They say that the noisiest thing in the world 

 is a sun-spot, a roaring whirlpool of gases in the 

 sun's atmosphere sometimes thousands of miles in 

 diameter: but of the whirlpool which Huxley 



103 



