Echo

“ Here is the voice of God and the voice of Nature. I cannot be wrong if I listen to them. Sometimes when uncertain of a voice from its very loudness, we catch the missing syllable in the echo. In God and Nature we have Voice and Echo. ”

“ He no longer believes that a being called Echo exists. He has found out the theory of sound, and he then knows that the wave of air has been returned to his ear, and the idea of a being who repeats his words fades from his mind ”

“ Echo is the shadow of sound. Echo and shadow are brother and sister; irresponsible children of nature who love to sport and play pranks with matter and make men doubt their own senses. I knew several of the dwelling places of echo; one in chief was between a large barn and a deep wood, and others at different points on Beaver Pond. ”

“ An echo is nothing more than a reflected sound. When the aërial vibrations strike against any obstacle of sufficient magnitude, they are reflected back to the ear, and produce a repetition of the sound, which will appear to proceed from the point whence they are reflected, so that the apparent direction of the voice becomes completely changed by an echo. ”

“ And he married the Echo one fortunate morn,
p. 116And Woman, their beautiful daughter, was born!
The daughter of Sunshine and Echo she came
With a voice like a song, with a face like a flame;
With a face like a flame, and a voice like a song,
And happy was Man, but it was not for long!
For weather’s a painfully changeable thing,
Not always the child of the Echo would sing;
And the face of the Sun may be hidden with mist,
And his child can be terribly cross if she list.
And unfortunate Man had to learn with surprise
That a frown’s not peculiar to masculine eyes;
That the sweetest of voices can scold and can sneer, ”

“ There is a sudden explosion, then a silence, as the vibrating waves of mighty amplitude pass over the valley to wake the voice of the mountain beyond, which, standing like a sentinel on guard, speaks in thunder tones to the next, and that repeats the sublime echo until all the mountains join in the chorus, answering back to the heavens. ”

“ And thus, though an echo actually increases the quantity of sound heard, its repetition of the notes or syllables of sound, gives an idea of calmness attainable in no other way; hence [57] the feeling of calm given to a landscape by the notes of the cuckoo. ”

“ Since also an Echo will speak without any mouth at all, articulately returning the voice of man, by only ordering the vocal spirit in concave and hollow places; whether the musculous and motive parts about the hollow mouths of Beasts, may not dispose the passing spirit into some articulate notes, seems a query of no great doubt. ”

“ An echo is formed when, from air which has been compressed into one mass by some receptacle which has bounded it and prevented it from being dissipated, the air constituting sound is repelled back again, just as a ball may be made to rebound. ”

“ All grating discords melt, No dissonant note is dealt, And though thy voice be shrill Like rasping file on steel, Such is the temper of the air, Echo waits with art and care, And will the faults of song repair. ”

“ No amount of sound constitutes an echo, but for all that no one would pretend that an echo is something of totally different nature from a sound. Again, nothing can be looser, or more inaccurate, than the assertion that "sensations supply the conditions for the existence of thought or knowledge." If this implies that sensations supply the conditions for the existence of our memory of sensations or of our thoughts about sensations, it is a truism which it is hardly worth while to state so solemnly. ”

“ In the cases of ordinary echo, when the speaker waits for the answer, he must place himself opposite the rock. If he stand at the side the echo will reply to another person in a corresponding place on the farther side, for the voice then strikes the rock at an angle, and the angle of reflection is the same, as in the case of light. ”

“ How sweet the answer Echo makes
To music at night,
When, roused by lute or horn, she wakes,
And far away, o'er lawns and lakes,
Goes answering light. ”

“ Perhaps instinct leads it to alter the pitch of its monotonous cry, in order to deceive the intruder. Again, echoes deceive the ear; not only may we mistake echo for the actual voice of the speaker, but it may appear as if close or distant, faint or loud, and thus in every point lead to erroneous conclusions. ”

“ But an echo, whether or not audible, ought, as the text states, looking at the properties of the air, to be a constant occurrence; for as light is continually reflected from bodies, and thereby casting shadows by which light is distinguished, so sound, owing to the air's elasticity, must be often reflected and, therefore, repeated, in varying degrees of intensity, according to the nature of the surface on which it may have impinged. ”

“ Since the human voice is at once a sound and a sign, it was of course natural to take the sound of the voice as a sign of the sounds of nature. [104] In short, to recall a sound by its echo in the voice is as obviously natural a proceeding as to recall an object to the memory by drawing the picture of its form. In both cases we act upon the senses by means of imitation; and if the human race had not been endued with the organs of hearing doubtless a language for the eye would have been invented, just as Philomela, when deprived of her tongue, made known, by embroidery, her [73] miserable tale. ”

“ The other, the mouth, as an echo-cave or resonator, no less wonderful in its power of forming itself to resound the harmonics of the vocal tones. This gives the
voice its power of imitating any sound within its reach. We will analyze the voice. ”

“ It is easy to get an echo even from the hardest rocks and shown by mountains. Call out the name Jesus between the rocks, and they will answer Jesus; not because they understand what they say, but because the echo gives back your voice. So it is generally with such dying people. ”

“ An echo is produced whenever the external air has been more than once repelled by the air contained within a vessel, by the sides of which that air is precluded from being dispersed, just as a ball rebounds. ”

“ From what has been said, it is evident, in order that a person may hear the echo of his own voice, that he should stand at least sixty three, or sixty four feet from the reflecting obstacle, so that the sound may have time to move over at least one hundred and twenty seven feet before it come to his ear, otherwise he could not distinguish it from the original sound. ”

“ Translation is at best an echo, and it must be a wonderful echo to be heard after the lapse of a thousand years. ”

“ But I know a lady that loves talking so incessantly, she won’t give an echo fair play; she has that everlasting rotation of tongue that an echo must wait till she dies before it can catch her last words. ”

“ Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing.
Methinks, its motion in this hush of nature
Gives it dim sympathies with me who live,
Making it a companionable form,
Whose puny flaps and freaks the idling Spirit
By its own moods interprets, every where
Echo or mirror seeking of itself,
And makes a toy of Thought. ”

“ Sweet as the bird's on the air,
When echo lurks by the waters to heed;
'Tis I speak thee fair."
"Dark is the hour! " "Ay, and cold."
"Lone is my house." "Ah, but mine?"
"Sight, touch, lips, eyes yearned in vain." ”

“ Its natural aim is to bring more and more sentient beings under the influence of the same emotional state. It seeks to vanquish the refractory and arouse the indifferent. An echo, a true and powerful echo—that is what it desires with all the energy of an unsatisfied longing. ”

“ I recognize the Voice in the Echo, the Echo makes me certain of the Voice; I listen and I know. The question of a Future Life is a biological question. Nature may be silent on other problems of Religion ”

“ Heard I that voice! and catch it now, though faint, [131]
Far off and faint, and melting into air,
Yet not to be mistaken. Hark again!
Those louder cries give notice that the Bird, 5
Although invisible as Echo’s self, [132]
Is wheeling hitherward. ”

“ Whose quiet stars may see thee and be glad.
I do not love thee!—yet, I know not why,
Whate'er thou dost seems still well done, to me:
And often in my solitude I sigh
That those I do love are not more like thee!
I do not love thee!—yet, when thou art gone,
I hate the sound (though those who speak be dear)
Which breaks the lingering echo of the tone
Thy voice of music leaves upon my ear.
I do not love thee!—yet thy speaking eyes,
With their deep, bright, and most expressive blue,
Between me and the midnight heaven arise,
Oftener than any eyes I ever knew.
I know I do not love thee! ”

“ Many a time they have a bout together—the children and the Echoes—trying which of them can make the more noise; and then the children call to the Echoes and bid them come out of their hiding-places and show themselves in the dusky twilight ”

“ All echoes have some one place to which they are returned stronger and more distinct than to any other; and that is always the place that lies at right angles with the object of repercussion, and is not too near, nor too far off. ”

“ How can I think of myself when infinitude o'er me is glowing,
Glowing with tokens of love from the land where my sorrows shall cease?
Oh, summer-night of the South! Oh, sweet languor of zephyrs love-sighing!
Oh, mighty circuit of shadowy solitude, holy and still!
Music scarce audible, echo-less harmony joyously dying,
Dying in faint suspirations o'er meadow, and forest, and hill!
I must go forth and be part of it, part of the night and its gladness.
But a few steps, and I pause on the marge of the shining lagoon. ”

“ THE echo mocks her origin to prove she is the original. ”

“ With flamy breath do issue oft in sound,
The sound of this strange air no sooner goes,
But that it does with Echoes’ force rebound; ”

“ Modern philologists prefer the term “echoism,” “echoic” for this process, as suggesting the imitative repetition of the sounds heard. At one time there was an exaggerated tendency to find in echoism a principal source in the origin and growth of language, ridiculed as the “bow-wow” theory of language ”

“ Is it necessary to add that the echoes of many characteristic tales, dating from that picturesque time, still linger about here in more or less fragmentary form, to be caught by the attentive ear? Some of them I have repeated; most of them I have forgotten; one I have never repeated, and assuredly can never forget. ”

“ Our echoes roll from soul to soul,
And grow forever and forever.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying. ”

“ Multitudinous echoes awoke and died in the distance, ”

“ Firstly, a sound and every voice is heard, When, getting into ears, they strike the sense With their own body. For confess we must Even voice and sound to be corporeal, Because they're able on the sense to strike. Besides voice often scrapes against the throat, And screams in going out do make more rough The wind-pipe—naturally enough, methinks, When, through the narrow exit rising up In larger throng, these primal germs of voice Have thus begun to issue forth. ”

“ The greatest mechanical wonder, however, is that the voice, and that which is apparently one and the same sound, should under different circumstances emanate from sources so entirely different in their construction as the vocal cords to the trachea and those to the œsophagus, the viscera of the kidneys, the bladder and the lungs, etc. This fact also accounts for the mystery which, like an impenetrable veil, has hung over the features of the voice. Who has ever thought of looking for the spirit of the voice to reveal itself from beneath the tongue? ”

“ An attempt to get at the truth in matters of the voice is an attempt at getting at the truth in matters of life. If you will tell me all that a vocal sound is, I will tell you what your soul is.
To examine into the anatomical construction of the larynx, to watch it physiologically and learn to understand the motions of the vocal cords in their relation to vocal sounds, is not much more than looking at the dial of a clock (a simile already used, but worth repeating) . The movements of the hands will give you no cue to the construction of the intricate works hidden behind the face of the clock. ”

“ Because I have the idea of the voice of the ox, so distinct, that I know the sensation I have, is different from the sensation of which that is the copy or representative. We can distinguish the sounds of a great number of different musical instruments, by the same process. The men, women, and children, of our intimate acquaintance, we can distinguish, and name, by their voices; that is, we have an idea of the past sensation, which enables us to declare, that the present is the voice of the same person. ”

“ Yet it is absurd, while original, to say that sound permeates the entire body, and that when it has entered by the organ of hearing it is spread to every nook and cranny, as though perception here were due not to the ears but to the body entire. ”

“ Again, hearing takes place when a current passes from the object, whether person or thing, which emits voice or sound or noise, or produces the sensation of hearing in any way whatever. This current is broken up into homogeneous particles, which at the same time preserve a certain mutual connection and a distinctive unity extending to the object which emitted them, and thus, for the most part, cause the perception in that case or, if not, merely indicate the presence of the external object. ”

“ The vocal organs, on the other hand, through which thought becomes realized in speech, are subject to all the conditions of the material world. The utterance of each articulate sound and its relations to another are conditioned and defined by the physical constitution of man, by the circumstances in which he finds himself, and by measurable laws of sound. The outward form of language, the flesh-garment, as it were, in which thought clothes itself, falls entirely into the domain of physiology and acoustics. ”

“ They make various angles with the original level of pitch, rising or falling abruptly or gradually. These are some of the variations, each indicating an attitude of the mind and heart of the speaker toward the thought, or toward the one spoken to, or toward the circumstances out of which the speech arises. All must be mastered for use at will if light and shade are to be developed in the voice.
Now let us take a phrase or sentence, and voice it under a certain condition, noting the inflection of the word or words which hold the thought of the phrase or sentence in solution. ”