OF SELBORNE, 
227 
Echo has always been fo amufing to the imaghiation, that the 
poets have perfonified her ; and in their hands fhe has been the 
occafion of many a beautiful fiftion. Nor need the gravefl man 
be afhamed to appear taken with fuch a phtenomenon, fince it 
may become the fubjed. of philofophical or mathematical 
inquiries. 
One ihould have imagined that echoes, if not entertaining, muft 
at leaft have been harmlefs and inoffenfive ; yet Firg'il advances a 
flrange notion, that they are injurious to bees. After enumerating 
fome probable and reafonable annoyances, fuch as prudent owners 
would wifh far removed from their bee-gardens, he adds 
" — — — — — — aut iibi concava pullii 
" Saxa fommt, vocifque ofFenfa refultat imago." 
This wild and fanciful aflertion will hardly be admitted by the 
philofophers of thefe days efpecially as they all now feem agreed 
that infecls are not furniflied with any organs of hearing at all. 
But if it fliould be urged, that though they cannot hear yet per- 
haps they may feel the repercuflions of founds, I grant it is pof- 
fible they may. Yet that thefe impreffions are diflafteful or hurtful, 
I deny, becaufe bees, in good fummers, thrive well in my outlet, 
where the echoes are very ftrong : for this village is another 
Anathoth, a place of refponfes or echoes. Befides, it does not ap- 
pear from experiment that bees are in any way capable of being 
affe6led by founds : for I have often tried my own with a large 
fpeaking-trumpet held clofe to their hives, and with fuch an exer- 
tion of voice as would have haled a fhip at the diftance of a mile, 
and ftill thefe infedts purfued their various employments undif- 
turbed, and v/ithout flicwing the leaft fenfibility or refentment. 
Gg2 
Some 
