PERMANENT CHAKACTER OF SPEECH. 273 



phenomena of rare occurrence, of which no description can 

 convey the idea, and which continue to be as deeply 

 marked with the marvellous as if they had been previously 

 unknown. Among these we may rank the remarkable 

 modifications which sound undergoes in particular situa- 

 tions and under particular circumstances. 



In the ordinary intercourse of life, we recognise indi- 

 viduals as much by their voice as by the features of their 

 face and the form of their body. A friend who has been 

 long absent will often stand before us as a stranger, till 

 his voice supplies us with the full power of recognition. 

 The brand imprinted by time on his outer form may 

 have effaced the youthful image which the memory had 

 cherished, but the original character of his voice and its 

 yet remembered tones will remain unimpaired. 



An old friend with a new face is not more common in 

 its moral than in its physical acceptation, and though the 

 sagacity of proverbial wisdom has not supplied us with the 

 counterpart in relation to the human voice, yet the 

 influence of its immutability over the mind has been 

 recorded by the poet in some of his most powerful 

 conceptions. When Manfred was unable to recognise in 

 the hectic phantom of Astarte the endeared lineaments of 

 the being whom he loved, the mere utterance of his name 

 recalled "the voice which was his music," and invested 

 her with the desired reality : 



Say on, say on 

 I live but in the Sound It is thy voice ! 



BYRON. 



The permanence of character thus impressed upon 

 speech exists only in those regions to whose atmosphere 

 our vocal organs are adapted. If either the speaker or the 

 hearer is placed in air differing greatly in density from 

 that to which they are accustomed, the voice of the one 

 will emit different sounds, or the same sounds will pro- 



