  Addison says, in No. 59 of the Spectator, “I find likewise in ancient times the conceit of making an Echo talk sensibly and give rational answers. If this could be excusable in any writer, it would be in Ovid, where he introduces the echo as a nymph, before she was worn away into nothing but a voice. (Met. iii. 379.) The learned Erasmus, though a man of wit and genius, has composed a dialogue upon this silly kind of device, and made use of an echo who seems to have been an extraordinary linguist, for she answers the person she talks with in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, according as she found the syllables which she was to repeat in any of those learned languages. Hudibras, in ridicule of this false kind of wit, has described Bruin bewailing the loss of his bear to a solitary echo, who is of great use to the poet in several distichs, as she does not only repeat after him, but helps out his verse and furnishes him with rhymes.” Euripides in his Andromeda—a tragedy now lost—had a similar scene, which Aristophanes makes sport with in his Feast of Ceres. In the Greek Anthology (iii. 6) is an epigram of Leonidas, and in Book IV. are some lines by Guaradas, commencing— a ??? f??a ?? s???ata??es?? t?. t?; (Echo! I love: advise me somewhat.—What?) The French bards in the age of Marot were very fond of this conceit. Disraeli gives an ingenious specimen in his Curiosities of Literature. The lines here transcribed are by Joachim de Bellay:— Qui est l’auteur de ces maux avenus?—Venus. Qu’Étois-je avant d’entrer en ce passage?—Sage. Qu’est-ce qu’aimer et se plaindre souvent?—Vent. Dis-moi quelle est celle pour qui j’endure?—Dure. Sent-elle bien la douleur qui me point?—Point. Here are three of the verses:— Well, Echo, tell me yet, How might I come to see This comely Queen of whom we talk? Oh, were she now by thee! By thee. By me? oh, were that true, How might I see her face? How might I know her from the rest, Or judge her by her grace? Her grace. Well, then, if so mine eyes Be such as they have been, Methinks I see among them all This same should be the Queen. The Queen. LONDON BEFORE THE RESTORATION.What want’st thou that thou art in this sad taking? a king. What made him hence move his residing? siding. Did any here deny him satisfaction? faction. Tell me whereon this strength of faction lies? on lies. What didst thou do when King left Parliament? lament. What terms wouldst give to gain his company? any. But thou wouldst serve him with thy best endeavor? ever. What wouldst thou do if thou couldst here behold him? hold him. But if he comes not, what becomes of London? undone. Echo, tell me, while I wander O’er this fairy plain to prove him, If my shepherd still grows fonder, Ought I in return to love him? Echo.—Love him, love him. If he loves, as is the fashion, Should I churlishly forsake him? Or, in pity to his passion, Fondly to my bosom take him? Echo.—Take him, take him. Thy advice, then, I’ll adhere to, Since in Cupid’s chains I’ve led him, And with Henry shall not fear to Marry, if you answer, “Wed him.” Echo.—Wed him, wed him. PASQUINADE.The following squib, cited by Mr. Motley in his Dutch Republic, from a MS. collection of pasquils, shows the prevalent opinion in the Netherlands concerning the parentage of Don John of Austria and the position of Barbara Blomberg:— —sed at Austriacum nostrum redeamus—eamus Hunc Cesaris filium esse satis est notum—notum Multi tamen de ejus patre dubitavere—vere Cujus ergo filium cum dieunt Itali—Itali Verum mater satis est nota in nostra republica—publica Imo hactenus egit in Brabanti ter voere—hoere Crimen est ne frui amplexu unius Cesaris tam generosi—osi Pluribus ergo usa in vit est—ita est Seu post Cesaris congressum non vere ante—ante Tace garrula ne tale quippiam loquare—quare? Nescis qu poena afficiendum dixerit Belgium insigne—igne, &c. THE GOSPEL ECHO.Found in a pew in a church in Scotland, written in a female hand. True faith producing love to God and man, Say, Echo, is not this the gospel plan? Echo.—The gospel plan! Must I my faith in Jesus constant show, By doing good to all, both friend and foe? Echo.—Both friend and foe! Must I return them good, and love them still? Echo.—Love them still! If they my failings causelessly reveal, Must I their faults as carefully conceal? Echo.—As carefully conceal! But if my name and character they tear, And cruel malice too, too plain appear; And, when I sorrow and affliction know, They smile, and add unto my cup of woe; Say, Echo, say, in such peculiar case, Must I continue still to love and bless? Echo.—Still love and bless! Why, Echo, how is this? Thou’rt sure a dove: Thy voice will leave me nothing else but love! Echo.—Nothing else but love! Amen, with all my heart, then be it so; And now to practice I’ll directly go. Echo.—Directly go! This path be mine; and, let who will reject, My gracious God me surely will protect. Echo.—Surely will protect! Henceforth on him I’ll cast my every care, And friends and foes, embrace them all in prayer. Echo.—Embrace them all in prayer. ECHO AND THE LOVER.
ECHO ON WOMAN.In the Doric manner. These verses of Dean Swift were supposed, by the late Mr. Reed, to have been written either in imitation of Lord Stirling’s Aurora, or of a scene of Robert Taylor’s old play, entitled The Hog has lost his Pearl.
BONAPARTE AND THE ECHO.The original publication of the following exposed the publisher, Palm, of Nuremberg, to trial by court-martial. He was sentenced to be shot at Braunau in 1807,—a severe retribution for a few lines of poetry. Bona.—Alone I am in this sequestered spot, not overheard. Echo.—Heard. Bona.—’Sdeath! Who answers me? What being is there nigh? Echo.—I. Bona.—Now I guess! To report my accents Echo has made her task. Echo.—Ask. Bona.—Knowest thou whether London will henceforth continue to resist? Echo.—Resist. Bona.—Whether Vienna and other courts will oppose me always? Echo.—Always. Bona.—Oh, Heaven! what must I expect after so many reverses? Echo.—Reverses. Bona.—What! should I, like coward vile, to compound be reduced? Echo.—Reduced. Bona.—After so many bright exploits be forced to restitution? Echo.—Restitution. Bona.—Restitution of what I’ve got by true heroic feats and martial address? Echo.—Yes. Bona.—What will be the end of so much toil and trouble? Echo.—Trouble. Echo.—Happy. Bona.—What should I then be that I think myself immortal? Echo.—Mortal. Bona.—The whole world is filled with the glory of my name, you know. Echo.—No. Bona.—Formerly its fame struck the vast globe with terror. Echo.—Error. Bona.—Sad Echo, begone! I grow infuriate! I die! EPIGRAM ON THE SYNOD OF DORT.Dordrechti synodus, nodus; chorus integer, Æger; Conventus, ventus; sessio stramen. Amen! Referring to the extravagant price demanded in London, in 1831, to see and hear the Orpheus of violinists, the Sunday Times asked,— What are they who pay three guineas To hear a tune of Paganini’s? Echo.—Pack o’ ninnies THE CRITIC’S EPIGRAMMATIC EXCUSE.I’d fain praise your poem, but tell me, how is it, When I cry out, “Exquisite,” Echo cries, “Quiz it!” ECHO ANSWERING.What must be done to conduct a newspaper right?—Write. What is necessary for a farmer to assist him?—System. What would give a blind man the greatest delight?—Light. What is the best counsel given by a justice of the peace?—Peace. Who commit the greatest abominations?—Nations. What cry is the greatest terrifier?—Fire. What are some women’s chief exercise?—Sighs. REMARKABLE ECHOES.An echo in Woodstock Park, Oxfordshire, repeats seventeen syllables by day, and twenty by night. One on the banks of the Lago del Lupo, above the fall of Terni, repeats fifteen. But the most remarkable echo known is one on the north side of Shipley Church, in Sussex, which distinctly repeats twenty-one syllables. In the Abbey church at St. Alban’s is a curious echo. The tick of a watch may be heard from one end of the church to the other. In Gloucester Cathedral, a gallery of an octagonal form conveys a whisper seventy-five feet across the nave. The following inscription is copied from this gallery:— Doubt not but God, who sits on high, Thy inmost secret prayers can hear; When a dead wall thus cunningly Conveys soft whispers to the ear. In the Cathedral of Girgenti, in Sicily, the slightest whisper is borne with perfect distinctness from the great western door to the cornice behind the high altar,—a distance of two hundred and fifty feet. By a most unlucky coincidence, the precise focus of divergence at the former station was chosen for the place of the confessional. Secrets never intended for the public ear thus became known, to the dismay of the confessors, and the scandal of the people, by the resort of the curious to the opposite point, (which seems to have been discovered accidentally,) till at length, one listener having had his curiosity somewhat over-gratified by hearing his wife’s avowal of her own infidelity, this tell-tale peculiarity became generally known, and the confessional was removed. In the whispering-gallery of St. Paul’s, London, the faintest sound is faithfully conveyed from one side to the other of the dome, but is not heard at any intermediate point. In the Manfroni Palace at Venice is a square room about twenty-five feet high, with a concave roof, in which a person standing in the centre, and stamping gently with his foot on the floor, hears the sound repeated a great many times; but as his position deviates from the centre, the reflected sounds grow EXTRAORDINARY FACTS IN ACOUSTICS.An intelligent and very respectable gentleman, named Ebenezer Snell, who is still living, at the age of eighty and upwards, was in a corn-field with a negro on the 17th of June, 1776, in the township of Cummington, Mass., one hundred and twenty-nine miles west of Bunker Hill by the course of the road, and at least one hundred by an air-line. Some time during the day, the negro was lying on the ground, and remarked to Ebenezer that there was war somewhere, for he could distinctly hear the cannonading. Ebenezer put his ear to the ground, and also heard the firing distinctly, and for a considerable time. He remembers the fact, which made a deep impression on his mind, as plainly as though it was yesterday. Over water, or a surface of ice, sound is propagated with remarkable clearness and strength. Dr. Hutton relates that, on a quiet part of the Thames near Chelsea, he could hear a person read distinctly at the distance of one hundred and forty feet, while on the land the same could only be heard at seventy-six. Lieut. Foster, in the third Polar expedition of Capt. Parry, found that he could hold conversation with a man across the harbor of Port Bowen, a distance of six thousand six hundred and ninety-six feet, or about a mile and a quarter. This, however, falls short of what is asserted by Derham and Dr. Young,—viz., that at Gibraltar the human voice has been heard at the distance of ten miles, the distance across the strait. Dr. Hearn, a Swedish physician, relates that he heard guns fired at Stockholm, on the occasion of the death of one of the royal family, in 1685, at the distance of thirty Swedish or one hundred and eighty British miles. The cannonade of a sea-fight between the English and Dutch, in 1672, was heard across England as far as Shrewsbury, and even in Wales, a distance of upwards of two hundred miles from the scene of action. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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