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a tunable ring of bells, or the melody of birds, very 

 agreeably : but we were still at a loss for a polysyllabi- 

 cal, articulate echo, till a young gentleman, who had 

 parted from his company in a summer evening walk, 

 and was calling after them, stumbled upon a very curi- 

 ous one in a spot where it might least be expected, At 

 first he was much surprised, and could not be per- 

 suaded but that he was mocked by some boy; but, 

 repeating his trials in several languages, and finding 

 his respondent to be a very adroit polyglot, he then 

 discerned the deception. 



This echo, in an evening, before rural noises cease, 

 would repeat ten syllables most articulately and dis- 

 tinctly, especially if quick dactyls were chosen. The 

 last syllables of 



" Tityre, tu patulae recubans " 



were as audibly and intelligibly returned as the first: 

 and there is no doubt, could trial have been made, but 

 that at midnight, when the air is very elastic, and a 

 dead stillness prevails, one or two syllables more might 

 have been obtained ; but the distance rendered so late 

 an experiment very inconvenient. 



Quick dactyls, we observed, succeeded best; for 

 when we came to try its powers in slow, heavy, embar- 

 rassed spondees of the same number of syllables, 



" Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens " 



we could perceive a return but of four or five. 



All echoes have some one place to which they are 

 returned stronger and more distinct than to any other ; 

 and that is always the place that lies at right angles 

 with the object of repercussion, and is not too near, nor 

 too far off. Buildings, or naked rocks, re-echo much 

 more articulately than hanging woods or vales; be- 

 cause in the latter the voice is, at it were, entangled 

 and embarrassed in the covert, and weakened in the 

 rebound. 



The true object of this echo, as we found by various 



