LXXX] OF SELBORNE. 221 
Should any gentleman of fortune think an echo in. liis park or 
outlet a pleasing incident, he might build one at little or no 
expense. For whenever he had occasion for a neAv barn, stable, 
dog kennel, or the like structure, it Avould be only needful to 
erect this building on the gentle declivity of a hill, with a like 
rising opposite to it, at a few hundred yards distance ; and 
perhaps success might be the easier insured could some canal, 
lake, or stream, intervene. From a seat at the centrum plionicumi 
he and his friends might amuse themselves sometimes of an 
evening with the prattle of this loquacious nymph ; of whose 
complacency and decent reserve more may be said than can with 
truth of every individual of her sex ; since she is " always ready 
with her vocal response, but never intrusive :" — 
" — — — — — — qua? nec reticere loquenti, 
Nec prior ipsa loqui didicit resonabilis echo." 
The classic reader will, I trust, pardon the following lovely 
quotatioD, so finely describing echoes, and so poetically account- 
ing for their causes : — 
" Qu?e bene quom videas, rationem reddere possis 
Tute tibi atque aliis, quo pacto per loca sola 
Saxa pareis formas verborum ex ordine reddaut, 
Palanteis comites quom monteis inter opacos 
Qu?erimus, et magna disperos voce ciemus. 
Sex etiam, aut septem loca vidi reddere voces 
Unam quom jaceres : ita colles collibus ipsis 
Verba repulsantes iterabant dicta referre. 
Hsec loca capripedes Satyros, Nymphasque tenere 
Finitimi fingunt, et Faunos esse loquuntur ; 
Quorum noctivago strepitu, ludoque jocanti 
Adfirmant volgo taciturna silentia rumpi, 
Cliordarumque sonos fieri, dulceisque querelas, 
Tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum : 
Et genus agricolum late sentiscere, quom Pan 
Pinea semiferi capitis velamina quassans, 
Unco ssc'pe labro calamos percurrit hianteis, 
Fistula silvestrem ne cesset fundere musani." 
(Lucretius, lib. iv. 1. 57G. 
" This shows thee why, wdiilst men, through caves and groves 
Call their lost friends, or mourn unhappy loves, 
