GILBERT WHITE 313 



began to fear that I was "peculiar" — that there was 

 something wrong with my nerves. Then, at long 

 last, when in my teens I first read Gilbert White's 

 Selborne, I came on a passage which exactly described 

 my own sensations and it was a comfort to me since 

 I knew now that others had felt about music as I did, 

 and had not gone out of their minds. The passage 

 occurs in a letter to Daines Barrington : 



You that understand both the theory and practical part of music 

 may best inform us why harmony or melody should so strongly 

 affect some men, as it were by recollection, for days after a concert 

 is over. What I mean the following passage will explain: "He 

 preferred the music of birds to vocal and instrumental harmony, 

 not that he did not take pleasure in any other, but because the 

 other left in the mind some constant agitation, disturbing the 

 sleep and the attention ; whilst the several varieties of sound and 

 concord go and return through the imagination: whereas no 

 such effect can be produced by the modulation of birds because, 

 as they are not equally imitable by us, they cannot equally 

 excite the internal faculty." (Gassendi, in his Life of Peiresc.) 



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 especially at first 

 waking, which, by their importunity, give me more uneasiness 

 than pleasure: elegant lessons still tease my imagination, and 

 recur irresistibly to my recollection at seasons, and even when 

 I am desirous of thinking of more serious matters. 



The only comment to be made on Gilbert White's 

 comment is that if he had given a moment's thought 

 to the subject he would have seen how far from the 

 truth, how absurd even, was the explanation which 

 he accepts unquestioning because it was Gassendi's. 

 Great music does not continue to haunt my mind 

 after hearing it, because it is imitable, and I am 



