produced by new tones and new positions.

The hours in which I was most free from interruption and restraint were
those of moonlight. My brother and I occupied a small room above the
kitchen, disconnected, in some degree, with the rest of the house. It
was the rural custom to retire early to bed and to anticipate the rising
of the sun. When the moonlight was strong enough to permit me to read,
it was my custom to escape from bed, and hie with my book to some
neighbouring eminence, where I would remain stretched on the mossy
rock, till the sinking or beclouded moon, forbade me to continue
my employment. I was indebted for books to a friendly person in the
neighbourhood, whose compliance with my solicitations was prompted
partly by benevolence and partly by enmity to my father, whom he
could not more egregiously offend than by gratifying my perverse and
pernicious curiosity.

In leaving my chamber I was obliged to use the utmost caution to avoid
rousing my brother, whose temper disposed him to thwart me in the least
of my gratifications. My purpose was surely laudable, and yet on leaving
the house and returning to it, I was obliged to use the vigilance and
circumspection of a thief.

One night I left my bed with this view. I posted first to my vocal glen,
and thence scrambling up a neighbouring steep, which overlooked a wide
extent of this romantic country, gave myself up to contemplation, and
the perusal of Milton's Comus.

My reflections were naturally suggested by the singularity of this
echo. To hear my own voice speak at a distance would have been formerly
regarded as prodigious. To hear too, that voice, not uttered by another,
by whom it might easily be mimicked, but by myself! I cannot now
recollect the transition which led me to the notion of sounds, similar
to these, but produced by other means than reverberation. Could I not so
dispose my organs as to make my voice appear at a distance?

From speculation I proceeded to experiment. The idea of a distant voice,
like my own, was intimately present to my fancy. I exerted myself with
a most ardent desire, and with something like a persuasion that I
should succeed. I started with surprise, for it seemed as if success
had crowned my attempts. I repeated the effort, but failed. A certain
position of the organs took place on the first attempt, altogether new,
unexampled and as it were, by accident, for I could not attain it on the
second experiment.

You will not