ANIMALS. 367 



CHAP. IX. 



OF SMELLING, FEELING, AND TASTING. 



An ajiimal rnay 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 difFusea into a wide circle ; that of hearing, though less 



and accurately examined Iiis whip ; then proceeded to the stable, and 

 handled his horse with great care, and with the utmost seeming attention. 

 It occasionally happened, that visitors arrived in a carriage ; and, on such 

 occasions, he never failed to go to the place where the carriage stood, ex- 

 amined the whole of it with much anxiety, and tried innumerable times the 

 elasticity of the springs. In all this he was undoubtedly guided by the smell 

 and touch only. 



From his childhood he had been accustomed to strike his fore teeth with a 

 key, or any instrument that gives a sharp sound. His chief pleasures were 

 obviously derived from taste and smell ; and he often eat with a disagreeable 

 voracity. He found amusement also in the exercise of touch ; and often em- 

 ployed himself for hours, in gathering from the bed of a river, round and 

 smooth stones, which he afterwards arranged in a circular form, seating 

 himself in the midst of the circle. He explored by touch a space of about 

 two hundred yards round the parsonage, to every part of which he walked 

 fearlessly, and without a guide ; and scarcely a day elapsed In which he did 

 not cautiously feel his way into ground which he had not explored before. 

 In one of these excursions of discoYery, his father observed him creeping 

 on his hands and knees, along a narrow wooden bridge which crossed a neigh 

 bouring river, at a point where the stream was deep and rapid. He was 

 immediately stopped; and to deter him from the repetition of such perilous 

 experiments, he was once or twice plunged into the river, which had the 

 desired effect. The servants were instructed to prevent his visits to the 

 horses of strangers in the stable ; and after his wishes in this respect had 

 been repeatedly thwarted, he had the ingenuity to lock the door of the 

 kitchen on the servants, in the hopes that he might accomplish unmolested his 

 visits to the stable. The information of his understanding and the guidance of 

 his conduct, seemed entirely to depend either on touch, or en the organs of smeU 

 and taste, which, in perfectly formed men, have almost dwindled into mere in. 

 struraents of sensual gratification. His docility and contrivance often indicat- 

 ed a degree of understanding which (if due allowance be made for his priva. 

 tions) was superii)r to that of many in whom every inlet is unobstructed 

 through which the materials of knowledge enter the mind. He had received a 

 severe wound in his foot, and during its cure, he usually sat by the fire-side, 

 with his foot resting on a small foot-stool. More than a year after wards, a ser- 

 vant boy with whom he used to play, was obliged to confine himself to a chair 

 from a similar cause. Young Mitchell perceiving that his companion re- 

 mained longer in one situation than he used to do, examined him attentively 



