The Perfume of an Exiening Primrose. 251 



affect us to be met face to face by some dear friend, 

 long absent and supposed to be dead. The suddenly 

 recovered sensation is more to us for a moment than 

 a mere sensation ; it is like a recovery of the irre- 

 coverable past. We are not moved in this way, or 

 at all events not nearly in the same degree, by seeing 

 objects or hearing sounds that are associated with 

 and recall past scenes, simply because the old 

 familiar sights and sounds have never been for- 

 gotten ; their phantasms have always existed in the 

 brain. If, for instance, I hear a bird's note that I 

 have not heard for the last twenty years, it is not 

 as if I had not really heard it, since I have listened 

 to it mentally a thousand times during the interval, 

 and it does not surprise or come to me like some- 

 thingr that was lost and is recovei'ed, and con- 

 sequently does not move me. And so with the 

 sensation of sight ; I cannot think of any fragrant 

 flower that grows in my distant home without seeing 

 it, so that its beauty may always be enjoyed ; — but 

 its fragrance, alas, has vanished and returns not ! 



