An old friend with a new face is not more common in its moral than in its physical acceptation; and though the sagacity of proverbial wisdom has not supplied us with the counterpart in relation to the human voice, yet the influence of its immutability over the mind has been recorded by the poet in some of his most powerful conceptions. When Manfred was unable to recognize in the hectic phantom of Astarte the endeared lineaments of the being whom he loved, the mere utterance of his name recalled “the voice which was his music,” and invested her with the desired reality. Say on, say on-- I live but in the sound--It is thy voice! BYRON. The permanence of character thus impressed upon speech exists only in those regions to whose atmosphere our vocal organs are adapted. If either the speaker or the hearer is placed in air differing greatly in density from that to which they are accustomed, the voice of the one will emit different sounds, or the same sounds will produce a different impression on the ear of the other. But if both parties are placed in this new atmosphere, their tones of communication will suffer the most remarkable change. The two extreme positions, where such effects become sufficiently striking, are in the compressed air of the diving-bell, when it is immersed to a great depth in the sea, or in the rarefied atmosphere which prevails on the summit of the Himalaya or the Andes. In the region of common life, and even at the stillest hour of night, the ear seldom rests from its toils. When the voice of man and the bustle of his labours have ceased, the sounds of insect life are redoubled; the night breeze awakens among the rustling leaves, and the swell of the distant ocean, and the sounds of the falling cataract or of the murmuring brook, fill the air with their pure and solemn music. The sublimity of deep silence is not to be found even in the steppes of the Volga, or in the forests of the Orinoco. It can be felt only in those lofty regions Where the tops of the Andes, Shoot soaringly forth.