THEIR LIMITS AND THEIR FALLACIES. 323 



the basilisk. We perceive a foundation for this tale. A 

 certain East-Indian weasel-like creature serves the dreaded 

 cobra precisely in this wise, and before going out to fight 

 he dines on a certain vegetable, but not the rue. 



Basilisk-hunting must have been dangerous sport for men, 

 yet men were found to do it. The hunter carried a mirror 

 in front of him, in which the basilisk met his own gaze, 

 and fell down dead. Basilisks lived, it is written, until com- 

 paratively modern periods, only they seem to have changed 

 their domicile from deserts and forests to mines and wells. 

 The records of early mining abound with statements of people 

 who, descending and meeting the basilisk's gaze, fell down 

 dead. The explanation is plain ; it was not what they saw, 

 but what they breathed, that killed these persons. They 

 inhaled some noxious gas ; what we call choke-damp now. 

 In respect of the poetry of vision, I can but casually note 

 it. The painter's art, in so far as relates to colour, de- 

 pends thereon ; the house-decorator's, the dyer's, and calico- 

 printer's. All that belongs to the harmony of dress is in 

 the same category. Are these things not written in the book 

 of Monsieur Chevreul? 



Taste and smell, we will take them together, inasmuch 

 as they are nearly allied ; so nearly, that it would be impos- 

 sible to draw the line, in many cases, where one begins and 

 the other ends. When one is disordered, so is the other; 

 when one ceases to act, the other languishes in force. For 

 example, most of us are supposed to know the difference 

 by taste between port and sherry ; yet if the eyes be blind- 

 folded, and the two wines tasted in succession, frequent 

 mistakes as to identity will result. , 



In matters of taste, cest le premier pas qui coute. Nobody 

 who has studied the physiology* of the senses, and who is in 

 the possession of his own, would ever dream of uncorking 

 bottle after bottle of Moet's, or Veuve Cliquot's, or Piper's 

 champagne, at ten and six or thereabout, for the delectation 



