104 AMUSING EXPERIMENT UPON IT. 



romantic tale of Mary Scott, I shall give his verses 

 precedence, on the principle mentioned by Tasso — 



" che '1 vero condito in moUi versi 



I piu schieri allettando ha persuaso." 



" The warder lists with fear and dread 

 For distant shout of fray begTin ; 

 The cricket tunes his tiny reed. 

 And harps behind the embers dun. 



" Why does the warder bend his head, 

 And silent stand the casement near? 

 The cricket stops his little reed. 

 The sound of gentle step to hear." 



One example may perhaps be deemed sufficient 

 to show that the circumstance mentioned at the con- 

 clusion of the last verse is correct. " BruneUi, an 

 Italian naturalist, kept several of the field-crickets 

 in a chamber. They continued their crinking song 

 through the whole day ; but the moment they heard 

 a knock at the door, they were silent. He subse- 

 quently invented a method of imitating their sounds, 

 and when he did so outside the door, at first a few 

 would venture upon a soft whisper, and by and bye, 

 the whole party burst out in chorus to answer him ; 

 but upon repeating the rap at the door, they instantly 

 stopped again, as if alarmed. He hkevdse confined 

 a male in one side of his garden, while he put a 

 female in the other at liberty, which began to leap as 

 soon as she heard the crink of the male, and imme- 



