At first he was much surprised, and could not be
persuaded but that he was mocked by some boy; but, repeating his
trials in several languages, and finding his respondent to be a very
adroit polyglot, he then discerned the deception.
This echo in an evening, before rural noises cease, would repeat
ten syllables most articulately and distinctly, especially if quick
dactyls were chosen. The last syllables of
Tityre, tu patulae recubans ...
were as audibly and intelligibly returned as the first: and there is no
doubt, could trial have been made, but that at midnight, when the
air is very elastic, and a dead stillness prevails, one or two syllables
more might have been obtained; but the distance rendered so late
an experiment very inconvenient.
Quick dactyls, we observed, succeeded best; for when we came to
try its powers in slow, heavy, embarrassed spondees of the same
number of syllables,
Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens ...
we could perceive a return but of four or five.
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.
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