AND SMELLING. 55 



enjoyment, we must not have a prejudice against 

 any thing, any more than a predilection for it be- 

 yond its proper measure. There is some pleasure 

 to be got out of every thing, be it what it may ; 

 and thus, though the place and the circumstance 

 of our lives limit us to only a few, we should be 

 ready both in knowledge and in aptness to enjoy 

 any new one that comes in our way. Still, the 

 tastes and the other sensations connected with eat- 

 ing and drinking are the most merely animal parts 

 of our whole system ; and as the animal works by 

 instinct, which is an innate property, like the com- 

 mon properties of matter, and mind works by ex- 

 perience, that is, by successive portions of know- 

 ledge received from without, through the medium 

 of the powers of observation, it follows that those 

 tastes and sensations are less susceptible of being 

 educated or improved than any of our other 

 powers ; and as we say of a dull fellow, who comes 

 (as is sometimes the case), idealess from school, 

 " a college education is thrown away upon them." 

 The sense of smelling, though some of the plea- 

 sures that it gives us are very delightful, and some 

 of its warnings are most wholesome and neces- 

 sary, has its immediate excitement so much out of 

 the way of the other senses, that the eye, the ear, 

 the hand, and even the palate, cannot cross ques- 

 tion it; so that we do not fully understand its 

 testimony, and therefore cannot do very much 

 towards improving it. Yet, it does admit of some 

 more improvement than the sense of tasting ; and 

 it is possible, nay likely, that our perception of 

 odours is a different matter altogether from that 

 of mere animals. The vulture and the raven scent 

 carrion, and the bloodhound follows on the slot, 



