better is he heard, especially by those who stand near the Wall also, though at a greater distance from the Pulpit; those at the remotest end of the Church, by laying their Ears somewhat close to the Wall, may hear him easier than those in the middle.
Hence also do arise Whispering Places. For the Voice being apply'd to one end of an Arch, easily rowls to the other. And indeed were the Motion and Propagation of Sounds but rightly understood, 'twould be no hard matter to contrive Whispering Places of infinite variety and use. And perhaps there could be no better or more pleasant hearing a Consort of Musick than at such a place as this, where the Sounds rowling along together, before they come to the Ear, must needs consolidate and imbody into one; which becomes a true composition of Sounds, and is the very Life and Soul of Consort.
- If the Sonorous Body be plac'd near Water, the Sound will easily be convey'd, yet mollified; as Experience teacheth us from a Ring of Bells near a River, and a great Gun shot off at Sea, which yet differ much in the strength, and softness and continuance, or propagation of their Sounds, from the same at Land, where the Sound is more harsh and more perishing, or much sooner decays.
- In a Plain a Voice may be heard at a far greater distance than in uneven Ground.
The Reason of all which last nam'd Phænomena is the same; because the Sonorous Air meeting with little or no resistance upon a Plane (much less upon an Arch'd) smooth Superficies, easily rowls along it, without being let or hinder'd in its Motion, and consequently without having its parts disfigured, and put into another kind of Revolution, than what they had at the first begetting of the Sound. Which is the true cause of its Preservation or Progression, and fails much when the Air passes over an uneven Surface, according to the degrees of its inequality, and somewhat also, when