The cause is obvious. You attempt to listen to negative sounds with the side of your ear still tuned negatively; while, ordinarily, when we cease to listen and commence to speak, _all_ poles are reversed. Spoken sounds are positive in relation to the speaker, but negative in relation to the person listening to the same. In consequence, the producer hears them with the negative (inner) part of his ear, the receiver, or listener, hears them with the positive (exterior) part of his ear. I copy the following from an article in the _Philadelphia Sunday Press_: "A curious fact in regard to the effect of explosions upon the drumhead, is that this tissue, though generally blown in, is sometimes blown out. Just what causes the latter result has not yet been fully explained." In this instance, I presume, the person's ear was tuned to listen interiorly, and the effect of the explosion, which, in relation to him, was of a negative nature, took effect on the positive, the posterior, side of his ear. This person was not in expectancy of the explosion, but it came on unawares, of a sudden, while he was in a state of contemplation. In connection with the eye, our inner consciousness acts as a "rein" upon the outer, drawing back in case of danger, checking our progress when suddenly coming upon a precipice, and _regulating our steps_ to circumvent it, but without coming to a stop, when seeing an obstacle in our way from a distance. The "rein" in such an instance reverses the poles of the eyes--the positive becomes negative and the negative positive; that is to say, in our usual mode of seeing, while walking, the exterior surface of the eye is positive, the interior negative; but when there is danger ahead and we are warned to be cautious, the exterior becomes negative and the interior positive; the activity now being exercised by the latter, the passivity by the former. The action of the "rein," however, is not direct, but crosswise; that is to say, the posterior surface of the left eye is in correspondence with the anterior of the right, and vice versa, in conformity with the "impulse" emanating from either the one or the other, while the anterior surface of the left eye is in correspondence with the posterior of the right, and vice versa. The knowledge of the reversion of the functional exercise of our organs of sense is of signal importance in connection with motion and vocal utterance, which always go hand in hand; every utterance being accompanied by a motion, though not always visible to the eye. In truly artistic delivery these motions are brought to the highest perfection; and visibly, though often in great moderation, accompany _every_ inflection of the voice.