262 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



and yet so small that one would wonder how the kernel can be 

 extracted through it ; while the last picks an irregular ragged hole 

 with its bill : but as this artist has no paws to hold the nut firm 

 while he pierces it, like an adroit workman, he fixes it, as it were, 

 in a vice, in some cleft of a tree, or in some crevice ; when, 

 standing over it, he perforates the stubborn shell. We have often 

 placed nuts in the chink of a gate-post where nut-hatches have 

 been known to haunt, and have always found that those birds have 

 readily penetrated them. While at work they make a rapping noise 

 that may be heard at a considerable distance. 



You that understand both the theory and practical part of music 

 may best inform us why harmony or melody should so strangely 

 assist some men, as it were by recollection, for days after the 

 concert is over. What I mean the following passage will most 

 readily explain : 



"Prashabebat porro vocibus humanis, instrumentisque harmonicis 

 musicam illam avium : non quod alia quoque non delectaretur : sed 

 quod ex musica humana relinqueretur in animo continens quasdam, 

 attentionemque et somnum conturbans agitato ; dum ascensus, 

 exscensus, tenores, ac mutationes illae sonorum, et consonantiarum 

 euntque, redeuntque per phantasiam : cum nihil tale relinqui 

 possit ex modulationibus avium, quae, quod non sunt perinde a 

 nobis imitabiles, non possunt perinde internam facultatem com- 

 movere." Gassendus in Vita Peireskii. 



This curious quotation strikes me much by so well representing 

 my own case, and by describing what I have so often felt, but never 

 could so well express. When I hear fine music I am haunted with 

 passages therefrom night and day ; and especially at first waking, 

 which by their importunity, give me more uneasiness than pleasure; 

 elegant lessons still tease my imagination, and recur irresistibly to 

 my recollection at seasons, and even, when I am desirous of 

 thinking of more serious matters. 



I am, &c. 



