3j8 HisroHV OF 



he began to thirik he saw some little glimmering of light. This 

 internal dawn seemed to increase from time to time, so that he 

 could not only discover the parts of his bed, and such other large 

 objects, but, at length, he even began to perceive the mice that 

 frequented his cell ; and saw them as they ran about the floor, 

 eatin^j the crumbs of bread that happened to fall. After some 

 months' conlinement he vt^as at last set free ; but such was the 

 effect of the darkness upon him, that he could not, for some 

 days venture to leave his dungeon, but was obliged to accustom 

 bimself by degrees to the light of the day." 



CHAP. VIII. 



or HEARING. 



As the sense of hearing, as well as of sight, gives us notice 

 cf remote objects, so, like that, it is subject to similar errors, 

 being capable of imposing on us upon all occasions, where we 

 cannot rectify it by the sense of feeling. We can have from it 

 no distinct intelligence of the distance from whence a sounding 

 body is heard ; a great noise far off, and a small one very near, 

 produce the same sensation : and unless we receive information 

 from some other sense, we can never distinctly tell whether the 

 sound be a great or a small one. It is not till we have learned, 

 by experience, that the particular sound which is heard, is of a 

 peculiar kind ; then we can judge of the distance from whence 

 we hear it. When we know the tone of the bell, we can then 

 judge how far it is from us. 



Every body that strikes against another produces a sound, 

 «vhich is simple, and but one in bodies which are not elastic, 

 but which is often repeated in such as are. If we strike a bell, 

 or a stretched string, for instance, which are both elastic, a 

 single blow produces a sound, which is repeated by the undula- 

 tions of the sonorous body, and which is multiplied as often as 

 it happens to undulate or vibrate. These undulations each strike 



1 This chapter is taken from Mr BufFon, except where marked by iiiver 

 tummas. 



