On Sound as a Nuisance . 
[September, 
570 
mosquitoes, the crane-fly, &c. — devoid of grace as of good- 
ness. With plants the case is surely similar, even though 
few of them possess the intense ugliness so common in the 
animal kingdom. But if we clear, a plot of ground, and 
abandon it again to the tender mercies of Nature, with what 
will it be covered in a few years’ time ? Shall we find there 
a primrose or a violet, an orchis or a foxglove, a wild rose 
or a honeysuckle, a royal Osmund or an oak-fern ? No ; 
the soil will be covered with nettles and docks and 
groundsel, with plantains and chickweed ! It is as. if the 
beautiful was hard beset to retain a foothold, even with our 
utmost aid, whilst the ugly and the hurtful increases and 
multiplies despite our labours. . 
In virtue of these considerations, to which many more ot 
a kindred nature might be added, the beauty of the organic 
world where it occurs can no more be pronounced especially 
intended for man’s delight than can the ugly sights, the 
doleful sounds, and the loathsome odours be considered as 
designed for his disgust. Man is placed in the world, and 
must take the rough with the smooth, avoiding or over- 
coming the former and making the best of the latter. . To 
say that there is a soul of goodness in all things evil is 
merely to give a more poetical version of the old adage, 
“ It is an ill wind which blows nobody good.” How com- 
pletely this scrap of “ homely” wisdom decomposes our 
teleology ! As for the problem of evil, we must await its 
solution hereafter. 
Mr. Baildon’s work, though in one sense evolutionist, 
furnishes proof how much evidence will have to be accumu- 
lated before the New Natural History can be definitely 
established, and to colledt such evidence may be less difficult 
than to win for it a candid and patient reception. 
IV. ON SOUND AS A NUISANCE. 
£ ' OR a long time it has been well known to the medical 
profession that in various critical states of the human 
system absolute silence, or the nearest possible ap- 
proach to it, is not the least important condition to be 
