The Fortnightly (Volume 30) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1878. Excerpt: ... In these and other ways persons at all sensitive to noises are exposed to an amount of suffering which may appreciably colour their conscious existence. And the reason is plain. Our mixed population represents all stages of human progress in auditory sensibility. The man with finely set musical ear has practically to live with barbarians who actually take pleasure in harsh and unlovely sounds, and with many more semi-civilised who are quite indifferent to such noises. Not only children but adults love to tease and excite their dogs, and this seems to show that they positively enjoy the sensations of loud sound which they thus evoke. The fondness of a certain class of people for screaming birds points to the same primitive condition of sensibility. The result of this heterogeneous composition of society is that people who profess to be annoyed by noises are regarded as an eccentric minority, who are wanting in the common traits of human nature. The shameful insults to which Mr. Babbage was subjected in his attempts to secure quiet, amply illustrate the popular way of regarding those who are endowed with more than the ordinary measure of sensibility.1 What, it.may be asked, is to be done in this state of things? Must we wait till the general level of sensibility is such that people will cease to afflict their neighbours because by so doing they would afflict themselves to an equal extent? Such a prospect is, on the face of it, illusory. So far as we can see, society will always be made up of people in very different stages of sensibility, and by the time the average citizen shall have acquired a keen dislike to sounds like those of a shrill cock, the few who represent the most forward wave of organic development will have discovered less obtrusive sources o...