θόρυβός τις, ἑστιωμένων ἡμῶν Ἀθήνησι παρʼ Ἀμμωνίῳ, τὴν οἰκίαν περιήχησεν, ἔξωθεν ἐπιβοωμένων τὸν στρατηγόν· ἐστρατήγει δὲ τὸ τρίτον ὁ Ἀμμώνιος. ἐπεὶ δὲ πέμψας τῶν περὶ αὑτόν τινας ἔπαυσε τὴν ταραχήν, καὶ παρέπεμψαν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, ἐζητοῦμεν ἡμεῖς, διὰ τί τῶν ἔξωθεν βοώντων συνεξακούουσιν οἱ ἐντός, οἱ δʼ ἔξω τῶν ἐντὸς οὐχ ὁμοίως. καὶ ὁ Ἀμμώνιος ἔφη τοῦτο μὲν ὑπʼ Ἀριστοτέλους λελύσθαι· τὴν γὰρ φωνὴν τῶν ἔνδον ἔξω φερομένην εἰς ἀέρα πολὺν καὶ ἀναπεπταμένον εὐθὺς ἐξαμαυροῦσθαι καὶ διασπείρεσθαι, τὴν δʼ ἔξωθεν εἴσω κατιοῦσαν οὐδὲν τοιοῦτο πάσχειν ἀλλὰ συνέχεσθαι καὶ διαμένειν εὔσημον· ἐκεῖνο δὲ μᾶλλον λόγου δεῖσθαι, τὸ νυκτὸς ἠχωδεστέρας εἶναι τὰς φωνὰς καὶ πρὸς τῷ μεγέθει τὴν τρανότητα καθαρῶς συνδιαφυλάττειν. ἐμοὶ μὲν οὖν εἶπεν οὐ φαύλως ἡ πρόνοια δοκεῖ μεμηχανῆσθαι τῇ ἀκοῇ σαφήνειαν, ὅτε τῆς ὄψεως οὐδὲν ἢ κομιδῇ τι μικρὸν ἔργον ἐστί. σκοτεινὸς γὰρ ὢν ὁ ἀὴρ κατʼ Ἐμπεδοκλέα νυκτὸς ἐρημαίης ἀλαώπιδος, ὅσον τῶν ὀμμάτων ἀφαιρεῖται τοῦ προαισθάνεσθαι, διὰ τῶν ὤτων ἀποδίδωσιν. ἐπεὶ δὲ δεῖ καὶ τὰ διʼ ἀνάγκης φύσει περαινόμενα τῶν αἰτίων ἀνευρίσκειν, καὶ τοῦτο τοῦ φυσικοῦ ἴδιόν ἐστιν, ἡ περὶ τὰς ὑλικὰς καὶ ὀργανικὰς ἀρχὰς πραγματεία· τίς ἂν ἔφη πρῶτος ὑμῶν εὐπορήσειε λόγου τὸ πιθανὸν ἔχοντος;
WHEN we supped with Ammonius at Athens, who was then the third time captain of the city-bands, there was a great noise about the house, some without doors calling, Captain! Captain! After he had sent his officers to quiet the tumult, and had dispersed the crowd, we began to enquire what was the reason that those that are within doors hear those that are without, but those that are without cannot hear those that are within as well. And Ammonius said, that Aristotle had given a reason for that already; for the sound of those within, being carried without into a large tract of air, grows weaker presently and is lost; but that which comes in from without is not subject to the like casualty, but is kept close, and is therefore more easy to be heard. But that seemed a more difficult question, Why sounds seem greater in the night than in the day, and yet altogether as clear. For my own part (continued he) I think Providence hath very wisely contrived that our hearing should be quickest when our sight can do us very little or no service; for the air of the blind and solitary Night, as Empedocles calls it, being dark, supplies in the ears that defect of sense which it makes in the eyes. But since of natural effects we should endeavor to find the causes, and to discover what are the material and mechanical principles of things is the proper task of a natural philosopher, who shall first assist us with a rational account hereof?
ἡσυχίας δὲ γενομένης, Βόηθος ἔφη νέος μὲν ὢν ἔτι καὶ σοφιστεύων ἀπὸ γεωμετρίας αἰτήμασι χρῆσθαι καὶ λαμβάνειν ἀναποδείκτους ὑποθέσεις, νυνὶ δὲ χρήσεσθαί τισι τῶν προαποδεδειγμένων ὑπʼ Ἐπικούρου. φέρεται τὰ ὄντα ἐν τῷ μὴ ὄντι·; πολὺ γὰρ κενὸν ἐνδιέσπαρται καὶ μέμικται ταῖς τοῦ ἀέρος ἀτόμοις· ὅταν μὲν οὖν διακεχυμένος καὶ πλάτος ἔχων καὶ περιδρομὴν ὑπὸ μανότητος, μικρὰ καὶ λεπτὰ τὰ μεταξὺ τῶν μορίων κενὰ λείπεται καὶ πολλὴν αἱ ἄτομοι κατεσπαρμέναι χώραν ἐπέχουσιν· ὅταν δὲ συσταλῇ καὶ πίλησις εἰς ὀλίγον αὐτῶν γένηται καὶ συμπέσωσιν ἀποβιασθεῖσαι πρὸς ἀλλήλας, πολλὴν εὐρυχωρίαν ἔξω καὶ διαστάσεις μεγάλας ποιοῦσι· τοῦτο δὲ γίγνεται νυκτὸς ὑπὸ ψυχρότητος· ἡ γὰρ θερμότης χαλᾷ καὶ διίστησι καὶ λύει τὰς πυκνώσεις· διὸ πλείονα τόπον τὰ ζέοντα καὶ μαλασσόμενα καὶ τηκόμενα τῶν σωμάτων ἐπιλαμβάνει· καὶ τοὐναντίον αὖ πάλιν τὰ πηγνύμενα καὶ ψυχόμενα συγχωρεῖ πρὸς ἄλληλα καὶ συνάγεται καὶ ἀπολείπει κενότητας ἐν τοῖς περιέχουσιν ἀγγείοις καὶ τόπους, ἐξ ὧν ὑποκεχώρηκεν. ἡ δὲ φωνὴ προσφερομένη καὶ προστυγχάνουσα σώμασι πολλοῖς καὶ ἀθρόοις ἢ τυφλοῦται παντάπασιν, ἢ διασπάσματα λαμβάνει μεγάλα καὶ πολλὰς ἀντικρούσεις καὶ διατριβάς· ἐν δὲ κενῷ καὶ σωμάτων ἐρήμῳ διαστήματι λεῖον δρόμον ἔχουσα καὶ συνεχῆ καὶ ἄπταιστον ἐξικνεῖται πρὸς τὴν ἀκοήν, ὑπὸ τάχους ἅμα τῷ λόγῳ διασῴζουσα τὴν σαφήνειαν. ὁρᾷς γὰρ ὅτι καὶ τῶν ἀγγείων τὰ κενὰ πληττόμενα, μᾶλλον ὑπακούει ταῖς πληγαῖς καὶ τὸν ἦχον ἀποτείνει μακράν, πολλάκις δὲ καὶ κύκλῳ περιφερόμενον διαδίδωσι πολύ· τὸ δʼ ἐμπλησθὲν ἢ στερεοῦ σώματος ἤ τινος ὑγροῦ παντάπασι γίγνεται κωφὸν καὶ ἄναυδον, ὁδὸν οὐκ ἐχούσης οὐδὲ χώραν ᾗ δίεισι τῆς φωνῆς. αὐτῶν δὲ τῶν σωμάτων χρυσὸς μὲν καὶ λίθος ὑπὸ πληρότητος ἰσχνόφωνα καὶ δυσηχῆ καὶ ταχὺ κατασβέννυσι τοὺς φθόγγους ἐν αὑτοῖς εὔφωνος δὲ καὶ λάλος ὁ χαλκός, ᾗ πολύκενος καὶ ὄγκον ἐλαφρὸς καὶ λεπτός, οὐ πολλοῖς συντεθλιμμένος ἐπαλλήλοις σώμασιν, ἀλλʼ ἄφθονον ἔχων τὸ τῆς ἐπιεικοῦς καὶ ἀναφοῦς μεμιγμένον οὐσίας, ἣ ταῖς τʼ ἄλλαις κινήσεσιν εὐπορίαν δίδωσι τήν τε φωνὴν εὐμενῶς ὑπολαμβάνουσα παραπέμπει; μέχρι ἂν ἁψάμενός τις ὥσπερ ἐν ὁδῷ καταλάβῃ καὶ τυφλώσῃ τὸ κενόν· ἐνταῦθα δʼ ἔστη καὶ ἀπεπαύσατο τοῦ πρόσω χωρεῖν διὰ τὴν ἀντίφραξιν. ταῦτʼ ἔφη δοκεῖ μοι τὴν νύκτα ποιεῖν ἠχώδη, τὴν δʼ ἡμέραν ἧττον θερμότητι καὶ διαχύσει τοῦ ἀέρος μικρὰ τὰ διαστήματα τῶν ἀτόμων ποιοῦσαν μόνον ἔφη μηδεὶς ἐνιστάσθω πρὸς τὰς πρώτας ὑποθέσεις.
Boethus began, and said: When I was a novice in letters, I then made use of geometrical postulates, and assumed as undoubted truths some undemonstrated suppositions; and now I shall make use of some propositions which Epicurus hath demonstrated already. Bodies move in a vacuum, and there are a great many spaces interspersed among the atoms of the air. Now when the air being rarefied is more extended, so as to fill the empty space, there are but few vacuities scattered and interspersed among the particles of matter; but when the atoms of air are condensed and laid close together, they leave a vast empty space, convenient and sufficient for other bodies to pass through. Now the coldness of the night makes such a constipation. Heat opens and separates the parts of condensed bodies. Therefore bodies that boil, grow soft, or melt, require a greater space than before; but on the contrary, the parts of the body that are condensed or freeze are contracted closer to one another, and leave those vessels and places from which they retired partly empty. Now the voice, meeting and striking against a great many bodies in its way, is either altogether lost or scattered, and very much and very frequently hindered in its passage; but when it hath a plain and smooth way through an empty space, and comes to the ear uninterrupted, the passage is so sudden, that it preserves its articulate distinctness, as well as the words it carries. You may observe that empty vessels, when knocked, answer presently, send out a noise to a great distance, and oftentimes the sound whirled round in the hollow breaks out with a considerable force; whilst a vessel that is filled either with a liquid or a solid body will not answer to a stroke, because the sound hath no room or passage to come through. And among solid bodies themselves, gold and stone, because they want pores, can hardly be made to sound; and when a noise is made by a stroke upon them, it is very flat, and presently lost. But brass is sounding, it being a porous, rare, and light metal, not consisting of parts closely compacted, but being mixed with a yielding and uncompacted substance, which gives free passage to other motions, and kindly receiving the sound sends it forward; till some touching the instrument do, as it were, seize on it in the way, and stop the hollow; for then, by reason of the hindering force, it stops and goes no farther. And this, in my opinion, is the reason why the night is more sonorous, and the day less; since in the day, the heat rarefying the air makes the empty spaces between the particles to be very little. But, pray, let none argue against the suppositions I first assumed.
κἀγώ, τοῦ Ἀμμωνίου κελεύοντος εἰπεῖν τι πρὸς αὐτὸν αἱ μὲν πρῶταί σου τῶν ὑποθέσεων ἔφην ὦ φίλε Βόηθε, καίπερ πολὺ τὸ κενὸν ἔχουσαι μενέτωσαν· τῇ δὲ φωνῇ τὸ κενὸν οὐκ ὀρθῶς πρὸς σωτηρίαν καὶ κίνησιν ὑποτίθεσθε. σιωπῆς γὰρ οἰκεῖον καὶ ἡσυχίας τὸ ἀναφὲς καὶ ἀπαθὲς καὶ ἄπληκτον, ἡ δὲ φωνὴ πληγὴ σώματος διηχοῦς, διηχὲς δὲ τὸ συμπαθὲς αὑτῷ καὶ συμφυὲς εὐκίνητον δὲ καὶ κοῦφον καὶ ὁμαλὸν καὶ ὑπήκοον τοῦ διʼ εὐτονίαν καὶ συνέχειαν, οἷός ἐστι παρʼ ἡμῖν ὁ ἀήρ. καὶ γὰρ ὕδωρ καὶ γῆ καὶ πῦρ ἄφωνα καθʼ ἑαυτά, φθέγγεται δὲ πνεύματος ἐμπεσόντος ἅπαντα καὶ ψόφους καὶ πατάγους ἀναδίδωσι· χαλκῷ δὲ κενοῦ μὲν οὐδὲν μέτεστιν, ὁμαλῷ δὲ πνεύματι καὶ λείῳ κεκραμένος εὔπληκτός ἐστι καὶ ἠχώδης. εἰ δὲ δεῖ τῇ ὄψει τεκμαίρεσθαι, φαίνεται μᾶλλον ὁ σίδηρος ἔχων τι σαθρὸν καὶ πολύκενον καὶ τενθρηνῶδες· ἔστι δὲ κακόφωνος σφόδρα καὶ τῶν μεταλλικῶν κωφότατος. οὐδὲν οὖν ἔδει τῇ νυκτὶ παρέχειν πράγματα συσπῶντας αὐτῆς τὸν ἀέρα καὶ συντείνοντας, ἑτέρωθι δʼ αὖ χώρας καὶ κενότητας ἀπολείποντας, ὥσπερ ἐμποδὼν ὄντα τῇ φωνῇ τὸν ἀέρα καὶ φθείροντα τὴν οὐσίαν, ἧς αὐτὸς οὐσία καὶ σῶμα καὶ δύναμὶς ἐστιν. ἄνευ δὲ τούτων ἔδει δή που τὰς ἀνωμάλους νύκτας, οἷον ὁμιχλώδεις καὶ δυσχειμέρους, ἠχωδεστέρας εἶναι τῶν αἰθρίων καὶ κεκραμένων ὁμαλῶς, διὰ τὸ δεῦρο μὲν συνωθεῖν τὰς ἀτόμους ἐκεῖ δʼ ὅθεν μεθίστανται χώραν ἔρημον ἀπολείπειν σωμάτων καὶ τὸ δὴ προχειρότατον, ἡμέραν ψυχρὰν ἠχωδεστέραν εἶναι νυκτὸς ἀλεεινῆς ῆς καὶ θερινῆς· ὧν οὐδέτερον ἀληθές ἐστι. διὸ τὸν λόγον τοῦτον ἀπολελοιπὼς ἐπιβάλλω τὸν Ἀναξαγόραν, ὑπὸ τοῦ ἡλίου λέγοντα κινεῖσθαι τὸν ἀέρα κίνησιν τρομώδη καὶ παλμοὺς ἔχουσαν, ὡς δῆλόν ἐστι τοῖς διὰ τοῦ φωτὸς ἀεὶ διᾴττουσι ψήγμασι μικροῖς καὶ θραύμασιν, ἃ δή τινες τίλας καλοῦσιν ταῦτʼ οὖν φησιν ὁ ἀνὴρ πρὸς τὴν θερμότητα σίζοντα καὶ ψοφοῦντα διʼ ἡμέρας δυσηκόους τῷ ψόφῳ τὰς φωνὰς ποιεῖν, νυκτὸς δὲ φαίνεσθαι τὸν σάλον αὐτῶν καὶ τὸν ἦχον.
And I (Ammonius bidding me oppose him) said: Sir, your suppositions which require a vacuum to be granted I shall admit; but you err in supposing that a vacuum is conducive either to the preservation or conveyance of sound. For that which cannot be touched, acted upon, or struck is peculiarly favorable to silence. But sound is a stroke of a sounding body; and a sounding body is that which is homogeneous and uniform, easy to be moved, light, smooth, and, by reason of its tenseness and continuity, obedient to the stroke; and such is the air. Water, earth, and fire, are of themselves soundless; but each of them makes a noise when air falls upon or gets into it. And brass hath in it no vacuum; but being mixed with a smooth and gentle air it answers to a stroke, and is sounding. If the eye may be judge, iron must be reckoned to have a great many vacuities, and to be porous like a honey-comb, yet it is the dullest, and sounds worse than any other metal.
Therefore there is no need to trouble the night to contract and condense its air, that in other parts we may leave vacuities and wide spaces; as if the air would hinder and corrupt the substance of the sounds, whose very substance, form, and power itself is. Besides, if your reason held, misty and extreme cold nights would be more sonorous than those which are temperate and clear, because then the atoms in our atmosphere are constipated, and the spaces which they left remain empty; and, what is more obvious, a cold day should be more sonorous than a warm summer’s night; neither of which is true. Therefore, laying aside that explication, I produce Anaxagoras, who teacheth that the sun makes a tremulous motion in the air, as is evident from those little motes which are seen tossed up and down and flying in the sunbeams. These (says he), being in the day-time whisked about by the heat, and making a humming noise, lessen or drown other sounds; but at night their motion, and consequently their noise, ceaseth.
ἐμοῦ δὲ ταῦτʼ εἰπόντος, Ἀμμώνιος; ἔφη γελοῖοι μὲν ἴσως φανούμεθα, καὶ Δημόκριτον ἐλέγχειν οἰόμενοι καὶ Ἀναξαγόραν ἐπανορθοῦσθαι θέλοντες· οὐ μὴν ἀλλʼ ἀφαιρετέον γε τῶν Ἀναξαγόρου σωμάτων τὸν σιγμόν· οὔτε γὰρ πιθανὸς οὔτʼ ἀναγκαῖος, ἀλλʼ ὁ τρόμος ἀρκεῖ τῶν σωμάτων καὶ ἡ κίνησις ἐν τῷ φωτὶ κλονουμένων τὰς φωνὰς; διασπᾶν καὶ διαρρίπτειν πολλάκις. ὁ γὰρ ἀήρ, ὥσπερ εἴρηται, σῶμα τῆς,φωνῆς· καὶ οὐσίαν ἐμπαρέχων ἑαυτόν, ἐὰν μὲν σταθερός, εὐθύπορα καὶ λεῖα καὶ συνεχῆ τὰ τῶν ψόφων μόρια καὶ κινήματα πόρρωθεν διαδίδωσι· νηνεμία γὰρ ἠχῶδες καὶ γαλήνη, καὶ τοὐναντίον, ὡς Σιμωνίδης φησίν, οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐννοσίφυλλος ἀήτα τότʼ ὦρτʼ ἀνέμων, / ἅ τις κατεκώλυε κιδναμένα μελιαδέα γᾶρυν / ἀραρεῖν ἀκοαῖσι βροτῶν. / πολλάκις μὲν γὰρ οὐδὲ τὸ σχῆμα τῆς φωνῆς ὁ τοῦ ἀέρος σάλος ἔναρθρον ἐᾷ πρὸς τὴν αἴσθησιν ἐξικνεῖσθαι καὶ διαμεμορφωμένον, ἀεὶ μέντοι τι τοῦ πλήθους φέρει καὶ τοῦ μεγέθους. ἡ μὲν οὖν νὺξ αὐτὴ καθʼ ἑαυτὴν οὐδὲν ἔχει κινητικὸν ἀέρος· ἡ δʼ ἡμέρα μέγα, τὸν ἣλιον, ὥσπερ αὐτὸς ὁ Ἀναξαγόρας εἴρηκεν.
When I had thus said, Ammonius began: Perhaps it will look like a ridiculous attempt in us, to endeavor to confute Democritus and correct Anaxagoras. Yet we must not allow that humming noise to Anaxagoras’s little motes, for it is neither probable nor necessary. But their tremulous and whirling motion in the sunbeams is oftentimes sufficient to disturb and break a sound. For the air (as hath been already said), being itself the body and substance of sound, if it be quiet and undisturbed, gives a straight, easy, and continuous way to the particles or the motions which make the sound. Thus sounds are best heard in calm still weather; and the contrary is seen in tempestuous weather, as Simonides hath it:— No tearing tempests rattled through the skies, / Which hinder sweet discourse from mortal ears. /
For often the disturbed air hinders the articulateness of a discourse from coming to the ears, though it may convey something of the loudness and length of it. Now the night, simply considered in itself, hath nothing that may disturb the air; though the day hath,—namely the sun, according to the opinion of Anaxagoras.
ὑπολαβὼν δὲ Θράσυλλος ὁ Ἀμμωνίου υἱὸς εἶτʼ ἔφη τί παθόντες, ὦ πρὸς Διός, εἶπας τῶι θεωρητὰ κινήματα τοῦ ἀέρος οἰόμεθα δεῖν αἰτᾶσθαι, τὸν δʼ ἐμφανῆ σάλον καὶ σπαραγμὸν αὐτοῦ παρορῶμεν; ὁ γὰρ δὴ μέγας ἡγεμὼν ἐν οὐρανῷ Ζεὺς οὗτος οὐ λανθάνων οὐδʼ ἀτρέμα διακινῶν τὰ σμικρότατα τοῦ ἀέρος ἀλλʼ εὐθὺς ἐκφανεὶς ἀνίστησι καὶ κινεῖ πάντα πράγματα δεξιὰ σημαίνων, λαοὺς δʼ ἐπὶ ἔργον ἐγείρων οἱ δʼ ἕπονται, καθάπερ ἐκ παλιγγενεσίας νέα ἐφʼ ἡμέρῃ φρονέοντες ὥς φησι Δημόκριτος, οὔτʼ ἀφώνοις οὒτʼ ἀπράκτοις ἐνεργείαις· καὶ τὸν ὄρθρον ὁ Ἴβυκος οὐ κακῶς κλυτὸν προσεῖπεν, ἐν ᾧ κλύειν καὶ ἤδη φθέγγεσθαι συμβέβηκε· τῆς δὲ νυκτὸς ἀκύμων τὰ πολλὰ καὶ ἄκλυτος ὢν ὁ ἀήρ, ἀναπαυομένων ἁπάντων, εἰκότως τὴν φωνὴν ἄθραυστον ἀναπέμπει καὶ ἀκέραιον πρὸς ἡμᾶς.
To this Thrasyllus, Ammonius’s son, subjoining said: What is the matter, for God’s sake, that we endeavor to solve this difficulty by the unintelligible fancied motion of the air, and never consider the tossing and divulsion thereof, which are sensible and evident? For Jupiter, the great ruler above, doth not covertly and silently move the little particles of air; but as soon as he appears, he stirs up and moves every thing. He sends forth lucky signs, / And stirs up nations to their proper work, / and they obey; and (as Democritus saith) with new thoughts for each new day, as if newly born again, they fall to their worldly concerns with noisy and effectual contrivances. And upon this account, Ibycus appositely calls the dawning κλυτόν (from κλύειν, to hear), because then men first begin to hear and speak. Now at night, all things being at rest, the air being quiet and undisturbed must therefore probably transmit the voice better, and convey it whole and unbroken to our ears.
παρὼν οὖν Ἀριστόδημος ὁ Κύπριος ἀλλʼ ὅρα εἶπεν ὦ Θράσυλλε, μὴ τοῦτο μὲν αἱ νυκτομαχίαι καὶ νυκτοπορίαι τῶν μεγάλων στρατοπέδων ἐλέγχουσιν, οὐδὲν ἧττον ἠχωδεστέρας ποιοῦσαι τὰς φωνάς, καίπερ ἐν ταραχῇ καὶ σάλῳ τοῦ ἀέρος ὄντος. ἔχει δέ τι καὶ τὸ παρʼ ἡμᾶς αἴτιον· αὐτοὶ γὰρ ὧν φθεγγόμεθα νύκτωρ τὰ πολλὰ θορυβώδη καὶ μετὰ πάθους ἐπείγοντος ἐγκελευόμεθά τισιν ἢ διαπυνθανόμενοι συντόνους ποιούμεθα τὰς γεγωνήσεις. τὸ γάρ, ἐν ᾧ μάλιστα καιρῷ πεφύκαμεν ἡσυχίαν ἄγειν, ἐξανιστὰν ἡμᾶς ἐπὶ πράξεις καὶ λόγους οὐ μικρὸν οὐδʼ ἀτρεμαῖόν ἐστιν, ἀλλὰ μέγα καὶ μεγάλης τινὸς ἀνάγκῃ χρείας ἐπιταχυνόμενον, ὥστε καὶ τὰς φωνὰς φέρεσθαι σφοδροτέρας.
Aristodemus the Cyprian, being then in company, said: But consider, sir, whether battles or the marches of great armies by night do not confute your reason; for the noise they make seems as loud as otherwise, though then the air is broken and very much disturbed. But the reason is partly in ourselves; for our voice at night is usually vehement, we either commanding others to do something or asking short questions with heat and concern. For that, at the same time when Nature requires rest, we should stir to do or speak any thing, there must be some great and urgent necessity for it; and thence our voices become more vehement and loud.
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