NOISE. 175 



these things, we could ensure that in our homes the 

 noise of life were reduced, by the exercise of a very 

 little care, to a minimum, I warrant our health, as 

 affected by our nerves, would be less subject to 

 derangement than is the case to-day. 



It seems an almost trivial thing to attach so much 

 importance to noise as a factor in making us both 

 irritable and nervous; but we are perpetually admit- 

 ting the fact by our tacit abhorrence of noise, whether 

 in the rattling of omnibus-windows (a particularly irri- 

 tating form of noise) or in the grumble at the heavy 

 feet of the " early bird," who rises betimes, and takes 

 care that everybody within hail of him shall become 

 well and instantly acquainted with the fact. 



I may go the length of suggesting that our annual 

 holiday and country flight has the theoretical absence 

 of noise as one but often an unrecognised reason for 

 its continuance. We leave the bustling city with its 

 roar and din for the quiet peaceful country- life, and 

 the absence of noise is a condition which operates 

 beneficially, like all other forms of rest, on our wearied 

 and jaded nerves. But woe betide us if, leaving the 

 city, we only run into new combinations of noise. We 

 begin to envy Thoreau in Walden Wood, when we 

 think of the peace and quiet that quaint zoophilist 

 enjoyed as he made friends with the birds and beasts, 

 and heard only the sweet sounds of forest-life in place 

 of the roar of civilisation. 



