All sound is nearly akin to Silence; it is a bubble on her surface which straightway bursts, an emblem of the strength and prolificness of the undercurrent. It is a faint utterance of Silence, and then only agreeable to our auditory nerves when it contrasts itself with the former. In proportion as it does this, and is a heightener and intensifier of the Silence, it is harmony and purest melody.
Every melodious sound is the ally of Silence,—a help and not a hindrance to abstraction.
Certain sounds more than others have found favor with the poets only as foils to silence.
ANACREON'S ODE TO THE CICADA[1]
We pronounce thee happy, cicada,
For on the tops of the trees,
Sipping a little dew,
Like any king thou singest,
For thine are they all,
Whatever thou seest in the fields,
And whatever the woods bear.
Thou art the friend of the husbandmen,
In no respect injuring any one;
And thou art honored among men,
Sweet prophet of summer.
The Muses love thee,
And Phœbus himself loves thee,
- ↑ [Excursions, p. 108; Riv. 133. "Drinking" for "Sipping" in l. 3 is the only change.]
