FINDINGS OF THE EAR 



of mind and heart, which are stronger than 

 all the other powers of man's world, one finds 

 the acme of noiselessness. For who can hear 

 a thought, or catch the varying heart-vibra- 

 tions, which make or mar the happiness of 

 the world? and who but a spirit can hear the 

 swift, wingless flight of imagination or the 

 firm, footless tread of the will? 



Soundless, also, are nearly all the material 

 translations of what is called genius in man. 

 Whatever speaks from the soul of the 

 painter is transferred silently to his canvas 

 with the soft strokes of a brush. The 

 author's fancies, no less quietly, are clad with 

 the gauze of verbal vestments whose fabric 

 is woven of symbols as fittingly intangible 

 as the thoughts they cover. Even in sculp- 

 ture, though the first rough outlining re- 

 quires the noise of chipping, all the fine 

 finishing work must be done with so fine a 

 touch that it is next to noiseless. The other 

 sister art, music, above all, triumphs over 

 noise by means of regulating irregular vibra- 

 tions so that noise is changed to a concord of 



sweet sounds. 



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