268 
THE NATURAL HISTORY 
[LETT- 
them. While at work they make a rapping noise, that may be 
heard at a considerable distance. 
You that understand both the theory and practical part of 
music may best inform us why harmony or melody should so 
strangely affect some men, as it were by recollection, for days 
after a concert is over. What I mean the following passage will 
explain : — 
" Prcehabebat porro vocibus Immanis, instrumentisque harmo- 
nicis musicam illam avium : non quod alia quoque non delecta- 
retur; sed quod ex musica humana relinqueretur in animo 
continens qua?dam, attentionemque et somnum conturbans 
agitatio ; dum ascensus, exscensus, tenores, ac mutationes illte 
sonorum, et consonantiarum euntque, redeuntque per phanta- 
siam : — cum nihil tale relinqui possit ex modulationibus avium, 
quae, quod non sunt perinde a nobis imitabiles, non possunt 
perinde internam facultatem comrnovere." — Gasseiidus} 
This curious quotation strikes me much by so well repre- 
senting my own case, and by describing what I have so often 
felt, but never could so w^ell 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. 
1 " He preferred the music of birds to vocal and instrumental harmony, not 
that he did not take pleasure in any other, but because the latter left in the 
mind some constant agitation, disturbing the sleep and the attention ; whilst 
the several variations of sound and concord go and return through the ima- 
gination ; whereas no such efiFect can be produced by the modulation of birds, 
because, as they are not equally iniitable by us, they caunot equally excite 
the internal faculty." — Gassoukis, in the Life of Feiresc. 
