PLEASURE OF HEARING. 67 



constantly on the increase. No doubt, if we are 

 to have that pleasure, we must cultivate the ear ; 

 that is, we must exercise it among pleasant sounds ; 

 and where can we do that so well as among the 

 voices of nature, which are all musical, all true, and 

 have no corrupting associations blended with them. 

 The ear is thus well worth the cultivating to as 

 great an extent as possible ; and where that is vi- 

 gorously and successfully done, it will accomplish 

 many things. It cannot, indeed, give eyes to the 

 blind, or feet to the lame, but it makes a substi- 

 tute ; and if we may judge by the light hearts and 

 gleesome dispositions of blind people, as contrasted 

 with the gloom and even moroseness of the deaf, 

 it is probable that a soundless world would be 

 more desolate than a sunless one. 



It is quite impossible to say what may be the 

 particular state or action of the air in the curious 

 tubes and labyrinths which make up the beautiful 

 internal cavity of the ear ; but it is certain, that 

 the fine membrane, called the tympanum, is not 

 the organ of hearing ; because there have been 

 frequent cases in which deafness has been cured 

 by the destruction of that membrane. The sense 

 which it most nearly resembles, is that which is 

 called touch, though not that branch of the very 

 complex sense of touch, which is made up of a suc- 

 cession of feelings and leads to knowledge, but 

 immediate and instantaneous touch. The one of 

 these gives us no more information about the ob- 

 ject producing it than the other. If a person is 

 sitting, musing in a dreamy reverie, with his senses 

 idle about him, and you steal behind him unobserved, 

 and slap your hands smartly together, it will take 

 him some time to find out whether you slapped 



