Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist | Page 5

were forgotten, and I amused myself
for an hour, with talking to these cliffs: I placed myself in new
positions, and exhausted my lungs and my invention in new clamours.
The pleasures of this new discovery were an ample compensation for
the ill treatment which I expected on my return. By some caprice in my
father I escaped merely with a few reproaches. I seized the first
opportunity of again visiting this recess, and repeating my amusement;
time, and incessant repetition, could scarcely lessen its charms or
exhaust the variety 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 wonder that I exerted myself with indefatigable zeal to
regain what had once, though for so short a space, been in my power.
Your own ears have witnessed the success of these efforts. By
perpetual exertion I gained it a second time, and now was a diligent
observer of the circumstances attending it. Gradually I subjected these
finer and more subtle motions to the command of my will. What was at
first difficult, by exercise and habit, was rendered easy. I learned to
accommodate my voice to all the varieties of distance and direction.
It cannot be denied that this faculty is wonderful and rare, but when we
consider the possible modifications of muscular motion, how few of
these are usually exerted, how imperfectly they are subjected to the will,

and yet that the will is capable of being rendered unlimited and
absolute, will not our wonder cease?
We have seen men who could hide their tongues so perfectly that even
an Anatomist, after the most accurate inspection that a living subject
could admit, has affirmed the organ to be wanting, but this was effected
by the exertion of muscles unknown and incredible to the greater part
of mankind.
The concurrence of teeth, palate and tongue, in the formation of speech
should seem to be indispensable, and yet men have spoken distinctly
though wanting a tongue, and to whom, therefore, teeth and palate were
superfluous. The tribe of motions requisite to this end, are wholly latent
and unknown, to those who possess that organ.
I mean not to be more explicit. I have no reason to suppose a peculiar
conformation or activity in my own organs, or that