Singular effects in nature depending on sound--Permanent character
of speech--Influence of great elevations on the character of
sounds, and on the powers of speech--Power of sound in throwing
down buildings--Dog killed by sound--Sounds greatly changed under
particular circumstances--Great audibility of sounds during
the night explained--Sounds deadened in media of different
densities--Illustrated in the case of a glass of champagne--and
in that of new-fallen snow--Remarkable echoes--Reverberations of
thunder--Subterranean noises--Remarkable one at the Solfaterra--Echo
at the Menai suspension bridge--Temporary deafness produced in
diving-bells--Inaudibility of particular sounds to particular
ears--Vocal powers of the statue of Memnon--Sounds in granite
rocks--Musical mountain of El-Nakous.
Although, among the phenomena of the material world, there is scarcely
one which, when well considered, is not an object of wonder, yet those
which we have been accustomed to witness from our infancy lose all
their interest from the frequency of their occurrence, while to the
natives of other countries they are unceasing objects of astonishment
and delight. The inhabitant of a tropical climate is confounded at
the sight of falling snow, and he almost discredits the evidence of
his senses when he sees a frozen river carrying loaded waggons on its
surface. The diffusion of knowledge by books, as well as by frequent
communication between the natives of different quarters of the globe,
has deprived this class of local wonders of their influence, and the
Indian and the Scandinavian can visit each other’s lands without any
violent excitement of surprise. Still, however, there are phenomena
of rare occurrence, of which no description can convey the idea, and
which continue to be as deeply marked with the marvellous as if they
had been previously unknown. Among these we may rank the remarkable
modifications which sound undergoes in particular situations and under
particular circumstances.
In the ordinary intercourse of life, we recognize individuals as
much by their voice as by the features of their face and the form of
their body. A friend who has been long absent will often stand before
us as a stranger, till his voice supplies us with the full power of
recognition. The brand imprinted by time on his outer form may have
effaced the youthful image which the memory had cherished, but the
original character of his voice and its yet remembered tones will
remain unimpaired.
An old friend with a new face is not more common in its moral than in
its physical acceptation; and though the sagacity of proverbial wisdom
has not supplied us with the counterpart in relation to the human
voice, yet the influence of its immutability over the mind has been
recorded by the poet in some of his most powerful conceptions. When
Manfred was unable to recognize in the hectic phantom of Astarte the
endeared lineaments of the being whom he loved, the mere utterance of
his name recalled “the voice which was his music,” and invested her
with the desired reality.
Say on, say on--
I live but in the sound--It is thy voice!