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Show 72 Sl\IELLING. system· and as the animal works by m• s t•m e t ' whicl1 t. is an in' nate property, l1"k e tll e co mm.o n protphe rt wiss of matter and mind works by expenenc~, ~ ' by succes~ive portions of knowledge recel ved /o~ without through the medium of the powers 0 · 0 - servatio'n it follows that those tastes and s~nsatwn~ are less ;usceptible of being educated or nnpro~e than any of our other powers; and as we say o a) dull fellow, who comes (as is someti~es _the case idealess from school, " a college educatwn IS thrown away upon them." f h 1 'fhe sense of smelling, though s_ome o t e P ea-sures that it gives us are very delightful, and some of its warnings are most wholesome and necessary, has its immediate excitement so much out of the way of the other senses, that the eye, the el_lr, t~te hand, and even the palate cannot cro~s-ques~wn 1t; so that we do not fully understand Its testlmo?y, and therefore cannot do very much towards ~mproving it. Yet it does admit o_f some ~o!e Improvement than the sense of tastmg; and It IS -possible, nay likely, that our perception of odours IS _a different matter altogether from that of m~re ammals. The vulture and the raven sce_nt carnon, and the bloodhound follows on the slo~, m case_s where the human nose gives not a jo_t of mformatwn; but the vulture would instantly qmt a bed of roses for a rotten carcass and the bloodhound would forsake all the perfum~s of Arabia in order to gnaw a _b~ne, although he had to scrape that bone out of the d1rtlest corner of the court-yard. No d~ubt the se_nse of smell in man goes so far h~nd In h_and with th~ merely animal process of gettmg nounshment ; for, as the proverb says, "a hungry man smells meat far;" and everybody must have fel~ how grateful the smell of the kitchen is before dmner, and how intolerable just after. But still the ~ense of smelling is not, as is prob~bly the case 'Yith that of tasting, wholly subservient to the ammal process of HUMAN AND ANIMAL SENSATIONS. 73 beit:J.g fed. There is a surplus part of it. That which distinguishes_ violets, and roses, and orange flowers, and clove pmks, and all the blooming perf~ mes of th~ gay globe rises above the mere gettmg of n~mnshment; and therefore it is a mental surplus given to us for the joint purposes of knowle~ ge a_nd enjoyment. It must, therefore, admit of ~emg ~mp~oved by education; but the means of Improv_mg It _necessarily partake of the niceneRs and obscur~ty _of Itself, and all that we can say positively about It Is, that "the longer we are among the sweets, t~ey smell the more sweetly." · • Ther_e I~ no such educatability in mere tasting. T~ere IS, 111 fact, rather the reverse ; and when the ~piCurea~ ransa_cks the three kingdoms of nature I~ all. their prov~nces, and even presses in putrefaction Itself~ to g1ve a flavour to his mess, he has actually less animal pleasure in that mess than the rustic has in a crust of wholesome brown bread or a potato nicely roasted in the turf ashes. His sensation may be different, but it is not better; and le~ a man be but hungry enough, and give him somethmg to appease that hunger, and all the cooks that ".the devil ever _sent" to mar Heaven's bounty can giVe no more enJoyment. So also in drinks-wines 1 1~ave their gusto, and ~ther potations their exhilara,. tlon; but "Adam's wme," as it wells livina- from (the rock, free from foreigt~ substances, and showin(l' every _gem of .the cask~t 111 each drop, is, in truth~ and w1ll rem am " the hquor of life." The weary ,the fain~ing, and the dying call not for burgundy, o; champaign, or t?kay; the longing of their heart, the hope of their recovery, or the alleviation of their anguish is "water, "-water clear from the fountain, or fresh from the cistern. Thus we see that, ·even in those cases in which art and luxury have done the most, human nature, when it c!omes to the hour _of tribulat~on-to the moment of peril -to the article of stnfe with nothingness-clings G |