Note 40 — Chapter XV
Reading edition
How charmingly this is illustrated by the childish faith with which we have all placed large whelk or other univalve shells to the ear, and, after listening with wonder for a time at the musical murmurings there heard, exclaimed that the tide was then flowing landward. Wordsworth refers to this in the following beautiful lines:—
... I've seen A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract Of inland ground, applying to his ear The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell, To which, in silence hush'd, his very soul Listened intently; for murmuring from within Were heard sonorous cadences, whereby, To his belief, the monitor expressed Mysterious union with its native sea.