ANIMALS. 22? 



CHAPTER IX. 



OF SMELLING, FEELING, AND TASTING. 



AN animal may be said to fill up that sphere which he can reach 

 by his senses, and is actually large in proportion to the sphere to 

 which its organ extends. By sight, man's enjoyments are diffused into 

 a wide circle ; that of hearing, though less widely diffused, neverthe- 

 less extends his powers ; the sense of smelling is more contracted 

 still ; and the taste and touch are the most confined of all. Thus 

 man enjoys very distant objects but with one sense only ; more nearly 

 he brings two senses at once to bear upon them ; his sense of smell- 

 ing assists the other two at its own distance, and of such objects as a 

 man, he may be said to be in perfect possession. 



Each sense, however, the more it acts at a distance, the more capa- 

 ble it is of making combinations, and is consequently the more im- 

 proveable. Refined imaginations, and men of strong minds, take more 

 pleasure, therefore, in improving the delights of the distant senses, 

 than in enjoying such as are scarce capable of improvement. 



By combining the objects of the extensive senses, all the arts of 

 poetry, painting, and harmony, have been discovered ; but the closer 

 senses, if I may so call them, such as smelling, tasting, and touching, 

 are, in some measure, as simple as they are limited, and admit of lit- 

 tle variety. The man of imagination makes a great and an artificial 

 happiness, by the pleasure of altering and combining ; the sensualist 

 just stops where he began, and cultivates only those pleasures which 

 he cannot improve. The sensualist is contented with those enjoy- 

 ments that are already made to his hand ; but the man of pleasure is 

 best pleased with growing happiness. 



Of all the senses, perhaps, there is not one in which man is more 

 inferior to other animals than in that of smelling. With man, it is a 

 sense that acts in a narrow sphere, and disgusts almost as frequently 

 as it gives him pleasure. With many other animals it is diffused to 

 a very great extent: and never seems to offend them. Dogs not only 

 trace the steps of other animals, but also discover them by the scent 

 at a very great distance ; and while they are thus exquisitely sensible 

 of all smells, they seem no way disgusted by any. 



But, although this sense is, in general, so very inferior in man, it is 

 much stronger in those nations that abstain from animal food, than 

 among Europeans. The Bramins of India have a power of smelling, 

 as I am informed, equal to what it is in most other creatures. They 

 can smell the water which they drink, that to us seems quite inodo- 

 rous; and have a word, in their language, which denotes a country 

 of fine water. We are told, also, that the negroes of the Antilles, by 

 the smell alone, can distinguish between the footsteps of a Frenchman 

 and a negro. It is possible, therefore, that we may dull this organ by 

 jur luxurious way of living; and sacrifice to the pleasures of taste, 

 those which might be received from perfume 



However, it is a sense that we can, in some measure, dispense with ; 

 and I have known many thnt wanted it entirely, with but very little 



