248 Idle Days in Patagonia. 



of two or three ladies, who, having no male relations 

 to make up their minds for them, profess to be still 

 in doubt, all sadly acknowledged that they find 

 themselves poorer by one faculty than they had sup- 

 posed themselves fco be ; that they began trying to 

 recall smells in the belief that they had the power ; 

 that they found that they could almost do it, then 

 began to doubt, and finally with a feeling of impo- 

 tence, of being baffled, gave it up. 



A simple mental experiment may serve to convince 

 any person who tries it that the sensations of smell 

 do not reproduce themselves in the mind. We 

 think of a rose, or a lily, or a violet, and a 

 feeling of pleasure attends the thought; but that 

 this feeling is caused solely by the image of some- 

 thing beautiful to the eye becomes evident when we 

 proceed to think of some artificial perfume, or 

 extract, or essence of a flower. The extract, we 

 know, gave us far more pleasure than the slight 

 perfume of the flower, but there is no feeling 

 of pleasure in thinking of it : it is nothing more 

 than an idea in the mind. On the other hand, when 

 we remember some extremely painful scene that we 

 have witnessed, or some sound, expressing distress 

 or anguish, that we have heard, something of the 

 distressed feeling experienced at the time is repro- 

 duced in us ; and it is common to hear people say, 

 It makes me sad, or makes me dizzy, or makes my 

 blood run cold, when I think of it ; which is 

 literally true, because in thinking of it they again 

 (in a sense) see and hear it. But to think of evil 



