V 



Wind and the sense of smell — Scent in deer and dog — Sense of 

 smell in man — In the Queensland savage — Sense of smell in 

 different races — Purely personal experience — The Smell of 

 England : a mystery and its solution — Aromatic and fragrant 

 smells — Wordsworth's vision of Paradise — Sweet gale — 

 Bracken — Gorse and its powerful effect — Spiritual quality 

 in odours — Cowslip — Melancholy flowers — Honeysuckle and 

 sweet-briar — Shakespeare and Chaucer on its scent — Chaucer, 

 though old, still living — Scents and their degrading associa- 

 tions — Frankincense. 



THE wind was the subject of the last chapter, 

 then that of telepathy cropped up and occu- 

 pied the last half. But the gust had not 

 blown its fill: there was indeed very much more to 

 say about it, only here I seem to be standing alone 

 in it, feeling it, thinking of it, and it will probably 

 be best for me to wait for others — physicists, 

 physiologists and psychologists — to come out and 

 feel and listen to it with me. 



There is, however, just one matter, a simple fact 

 familiar, I dare say, to most persons, which I either 

 forgot to mention, or did not emphasise when writing 

 in praise of the wind. It will now, I fancy, come best 

 in this place, since it will serve to link the last chapter 

 with the present one, which has for its subject the 

 sense of smell. 



When a smell — a flowery fragrance, let us say, 

 to be on the agreeable side of things — is blown to 

 our nostrils, the nerve's sensibility is not quickly 



59 



