ANIMALS. 33 



saw them, as they ran about the floor, eating the 

 crumbs of bread that happened to fall. After 

 some months' confinement, he was at last set 

 free ; but such was the effect of the darkness up- 

 on him, that he could not for some days venture 

 to leave his dungeon, but was obliged to accus- 

 tom himself by degrees to the light of the day." 



CHAPTER III. 



OF HEARING.* 



' 



As the sense of hearing, as well as of sight, gives 

 us notice of remote objects, so, like that, it is 

 subject to similar errors, being capable of impos- 

 ing on us upon all occasions, where we cannot 

 rectify it by the sense of feeling. We can have 

 from it no distinct intelligence of the distance 

 from whence a sounding body is heard ; a great 

 noise far off, and a small one very near, produce 

 the same sensation ; and unless we receive infor- 

 mation from some other sense, we can never dis- 

 tinctly tell w r hether the sound be a great or a 

 small one. It is not till we have learned, by ex- 

 perience, that the particular sound which is heard 

 is of a peculiar kind, that we can judge of the 

 distance from whence we hear it. When we 

 know the tone of the bell, we can then judge how 

 far it is from us. 



* This chapter is taken from M. Buffon, except where marked by invert- 

 ed commas. 



VOL." II. C 



