ions in Africa, or of bears in Russia, very pleasing; but I
know no beast in England whose voice I do not account musical, save and
except always the braying of an ass. The notes of all our birds and
fowls please me, without one exception. I should not indeed think of
keeping a goose in a cage, that I might hang him up in the parlour for
the sake of his melody, but a goose upon a common, or in a farmyard, is
no bad performer; and as to insects, if the black beetle, and beetles
indeed of all hues, will keep out of my way, I have no objection to any
of the rest; on the contrary, in whatever key they sing, from the gnat's
fine treble to the bass of the humble bee, I admire them all. Seriously
however it strikes me as a very observable instance of providential
kindness to man, that such an exact accord has been contrived between
his ear, and the sounds with which, at least in a rural situation, it is
almost every moment visited. All the world is sensible of the
uncomfortable effect that certain sounds have upon the nerves, and
consequently upon the spirits:--and if a sinful world had been filled
with such as would have curdled the blood, and have made the sense of
hearing a perpetual inconvenience, I do not know that we should have had
a right to complain. But now the fields, the woods, the gardens have
each their concert, and the ear of man is for ever regaled by creatures
who seem only to please themselves. Even the ears that are deaf to the
Gospel, are continually entertained, though without knowing it, by
sounds for which they are solely indebted to its author. There is
somewhere in infinite space a world that does not roll within the
precincts of mercy, and as it is reasonable, and even scriptural, to
suppose that there is music in Heaven, in those dismal regions perhaps
the reverse of it is found; tones so dismal, as to make woe itself more
insupportable, and to acuminate[113] even despair. But my paper
admonishes me in good time to draw the reins, and to check the descent
of my fancy into deeps, with which she is but too familiar.

Our best love attends you both, with yours,

_Sum ut semper, tui studiossimus_,

W. C.

FOOTNOTES:

[113] "Acuminate" = "sharpen," is a perfectly good word in itself, but
perhaps does not so perfectly suit "despair," which crushes rather than
pierces.

SYDNEY SMITH (1771-1845)

It has been said of Sydney Smith that he was not only a
humourist, but a "good-humouri