“I really, my dear Sir, cannot see any good reason for giving this preference, in point of antiquity, to wind instruments,” said Mr. Seymour. “The lyre, or harp, is, surely, as ancient as any instrument on record. The mythologist ascribes the idea of producing sound by the vibration of a string, to Apollo; which is said by Censorinus to have suggested itself to him, on his hearing the twang of the bow of his sister Diana. With respect to instruments of percussion, it may be reasonably supposed that the sonorous ringing of hollow bodies, when struck, must have very soon suggested their invention to mankind; but I really consider any research into a question of such obscurity as uninteresting as it must be hopeless; let us rather devote our attention to the philosophy of these instruments. I have stated that they may be referred to three principal classes; but I must at the same time observe that, in some cases, the vibrations of solid bodies are made to co-operate with those of a given portion of air; for example, trumpets and various horns may be said to be mixed wind instruments, since their sound is produced by the joint vibrations of the air and a solid body; and in certain stringed instruments, as in the violin, the immediate effect of the strings is increased by means of a sounding-board, which appears to be agitated by their motion, and to act more powerfully on the air than the strings could have done alone.” “I apprehend that this mixture must obtain more or less in all instruments,” said the vicar. “Not at all. The flute, flageolet, humming-top, and the cavity of the mouth in whistling, may be considered as simple wind instruments, in which the quality of the sound is alone determined by the vibrations of the air. I have already explained the manner in which the oscillations of a string excite aërial undulations, and thus produce sound; and you have seen that the nature of these sounds is determined by the length and thickness of such strings: the theory equally applies to wind instruments, in which case, a column of air corresponds with the string, the volume and length of which determines the sound. In the harp, the strings are constructed of different lengths and dimensions; and so, in the _Syrinx_, or _Pan’s pipes_, is the volume of air adjusted to the respective notes by the size and length of the reeds; but, in the violin, the lengths of the strings are altered at pleasure by pressing them down on the finger-board; and, in like manner, the effective length of the flute is changed by the opening or shutting the holes made at proper distances in them; the opening of a hole at any part being the same in effect as if the pipe were cut off a little beyond it.”