“It was in the church of Pont-Charenton, on the Seine,” replied Mr. Seymour; “in which place that great philosopher discovered the inability of an echo to return the letter S, for having pronounced the word satan, the echo replied va-t-en, which in French signifies away; from which circumstance, the Parisians concluded, that some guardian spirit prevented the walls of the sacred edifice from pronouncing the name of satan.”
“And will not an echo repeat the letter S?” asked Louisa.
“Not always,” answered her father; “the hissing or sibilant noise of the letter, when at the commencement of a word, is generally lost, unless the echo be extremely perfect.”
The party now set off on their excursion to the valley. Mr. Seymour disposed them in such situations as were best calculated to display the powers of the echo, and to illustrate the several effects which he had endeavoured to explain. The vicar performed his experiment with dactyles and spondees, and was highly gratified to find that their results proved, in a most satisfactory manner, the correctness of his conjecture. The attention of Miss Villers was particularly directed to the effect of the voice of Mrs. Seymour from the orchard gate, and which, she said, convinced her that the sound she had heard on the preceding evening must have arisen from the cause assigned to it.
After the party had fairly tired themselves by their converse with the airy and unsubstantial being, they descended to the sandstone rocks, which Mr. Seymour pointed out as the local habitation of the solitary spirit. These were duly examined by Louisa and Tom, and their operation as a reflecting screen was pointed out to them by their father. They now returned into the geological temple; its singularly beautiful pillars very naturally attracted the attention of Miss Villers, and she expressed a wish that Mr. Seymour should describe the plan of their construction; for it was very evident, as she said, from the disposition of the specimens, that the arrangements had been directed with some view to geological illustration. Mr. Seymour felt gratified by this request, and promised to comply with her wishes, as soon as he had finished the investigation of those laws by which the reflection of sound was governed.
“Why, bless me!” exclaimed the vicar, “the revels of our airy companion are ended; and I maintain, that nothing can be more appropriate than the consideration of the objects for which Miss Villers has expressed so much interest. In truth, the history of Echo is classically associated with that of geology: by diving into the recesses of the rock, we do but pursue her descent from air to earth; for you, no doubt, remember that after she had been deprived of her loquacity by Juno, she became enamoured of Narcissus, pined away, and was transformed into stone.”[[59]]
“I cannot but admire the ingenuity with which you embellish every subject with classical decorations,” replied Mr. Seymour. “You, however, must well know that I require no such allurement on the present occasion. I shall be most willing to afford Miss Villers the information she requires, as soon as I have explained to my young pupils the principle of the whispering gallery in St. Paul’s; as well as some recreations which are indebted for their effects to the reflection of sound.”
“I ought to apologise for the interruption I have occasioned,” said Miss Villers; “but I was not, until this moment, aware of the extent to which you intended to carry your illustrations.”
Mr. Seymour commenced with the subject of the “whispering gallery,” at the foot of the dome of St. Paul’s cathedral; and in order to render intelligible the manner in which sound is concentrated, and thereby magnified in that hollow hemisphere, he produced a diagram, of which the annexed cut is a copy.
