SOUND. 123 



sibiiity of shaping air into words, that the im- 

 perceptible vibrations which a man produces 

 in the atmosphere, become some of his most 

 important actions, the foundations of the highest 

 moral and social relations, and the condition 

 and instrument of all the advancement and im- 

 provement of which he is susceptible. 



It appears that the differences of articulate 

 sound arise from the different form of the cavity 

 through which the sound is made to proceed 

 immediately after being produced. In the 

 human voice the sound is produced in the 

 larynx, and modified by the cavity of the mouth, 

 and the various organs which surround this 

 cavity. The laws by which articulate sounds are 

 thus produced have not yet been fully developed, 

 but appear to be in the progress of being so. 



The properties of sounds which have been 

 mentioned, differences of loudness, of pitch, of 

 quality, and articulation, appear to be all requisite 

 in order that sound shall answer its purposes in 

 the economy of animal and of human life. And 

 how was the air made capable of conveying these 

 four differences, at the same time that the organs 

 were made capable of producing them ? Surely 

 by a most refined and skilful adaptation, applied 

 with a most comprehensive design. 



6. Again ; is it by chance that the air and the 

 ear exist together? Did the air produce the 

 organization of the ear? or the ear, independently 

 organized, anticipate the constitution of the 



