296 MUSIC. 



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 prac- 

 tical part of music may best inform us why har- 

 mony or melody should so strangely affect some 

 men, as it were by recollection, for days after a 

 concert is over. What I mean, the following 

 passage will most readily explain : 



" Prsehabebat porro vocibus humanis, instru- 

 mentisque harmonicis, musicam illam avium : non 

 quod alia quoque non delectaretur ; sed quod ex 

 musica humana relinqueretur in animo continens 

 qusedam, attentionemque et somnum conturbans 

 agitatio : dum ascensus, exscensus, tenores, ac 

 mutationes illse sonorum et consonantiarum, eunt- 

 que, redeuntque per phantasiam : cum nihil tale 

 relinqui possit ex modulationibus avium, quse, quod 

 non sunt perinde a nobis imitabiles, non possunt 

 perinde internam facultatem commovere." GAS- 

 SENDUS, 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 espe- 

 cially at first waking ; which, by their importunity, 

 give me more uneasiness than pleasure : ele- 



