276 ON THE SENSES. 



hrntol (of what use?) only tliirsts after popular expositions, will probably de- 

 rive not the least satisfaction from the preceding observations. For such alone 

 are these pages intended who desire the possession of scientific truths for their 

 own sake ; and it is to such only that 1 deem it possible to convey a popular 

 representation of physiology — a subject which, in the foregoing article, appears 

 for the tirst time in this work, {^Aus dcr Natur.) 



2.— THE SENSE OF SMELL. 



TiIan is, in a certain sense, the slave of his nose, and even a strong will is 

 often powerless in its struggle against the force, partly original, partly developed 

 by habit, of that unseemly tyrant. Not to be suspected of a trivial allusion- to 

 the snuff-taking members of mankind, and in order to allay in my readers every 

 sentiment of indignation which this imputed slavery might give rise to, I hasten 

 to explain and prove my assertion, stating at the outset that we shai'e this 

 slavery with the animals, to which we, in general, and even in many a physical 

 relation, are certainly not so incomparably superior as the proud lord of creation 

 would fain believe. Who would deny that Avhat we call our disposition is but 

 a soft wax, moulded in manifold ways by sensual impressions, and, according 

 ,0 their nature and power, incessantly changed into endlessly varying shapes, 

 comparable, in this respect to the photographer's plate, which, yielding to the 

 influences and inviolable laws of light and shadow, reproduces in faithful 

 images the local relations under Avhich light and shadow act upon it? Who, 

 indeed, would be so presumptuous as seriously to assert himself complete master 

 of his disposition, and abhi to force it to withstand the most powerful impres- 

 sions of the senses, without changing color or form ? ILe who asserts this has 

 not yet cast a profound discerning look into the machinery of his own mental 

 life, whether prevented by a lack of talent for self-observation or by a lack of 

 modesty. He who earnestly examines and tries to understand his inner life 

 will have found that, in a thousand cases, our longings, our desires, as well as the 

 opposite antipathies, always v/ear the color of the momentary disposition ; that, 

 as its effluences, they are, like itself, the indirect products of the workings of 

 the outer world upon our soul through the medium of our senses ; and that from 

 the same source flow thousands of our actions which we regard as entirely 

 spontaneous, as springing from our free will, and not from the force of external 

 influences. These may appear to some as commopplace speculations ; they 

 certainly are truths which the lyric poetry of all ages has hounded to death, 

 and which, coated with new phrases, are reproduced in every novel ; but they 

 ai'e, no doubt, nevertheless obscure to many a reader who receives them with a 

 contemptuous smile as stale, and in a given case deceives himself, unable to dis- 

 cern the source of his disposition, the hidden external causes which, through 

 the senses, have necessitated his "voluntary" desires and actions. We shall 

 leave it to the poets to sing the commanding voice with which nature speaks to 

 our soul through the senses, charming forth, in varied alternation, joy and sorrow, 

 longing and horror, and only in a few allusions shall allow ourselves a slight 

 encroachment upon their domain. Whose heart is so ice-bound as not to be 

 warmed by the charms of nature awakening from its slumber on an early and 

 a serene spring morning 1 Behold, its youthfully stirring life pours into your 

 inner being through all your senses, paints every thought with its gaudy tints, 

 rouses all the merry spirits of your heart, (an innocent instrument, indeed, but 

 which the poets have transformed into a cornucopia of the feelings.) The fresh 

 and sapful verdure excites your nerves of sight, the tepid air your nerves of 

 touch, the fragrance of the young spring flowers j'our nerves of smell, the 

 returning birds your nerves of hearing, inspiring long-missed sensations, and if 



