48 NOSES 



weakness of the eyes, it is of the utmost importance 

 to keep him from knowing it if possible, for if he 

 knows it he will think about it, and that will inevitably 

 aggravate it. This principle is well recognised in 

 systems of physical culture. And surely it is impos- 

 sible that so much intelligence should pass through 

 that one sensitive region of the body which we are 

 considering without affecting its growth and struc- 

 ture. Every muscle in it becomes quick to respond 

 to various sensations in different ways, till the very 

 recollection of those sensations will excite the same 

 response. 



Nay, we may go further. The mental emotions 

 excited by those sensations will be expressed in 

 the same way. For example, the sense of smell is 

 peculiarly effective in exciting disgust. Anything 

 which does violence to the sense of hearing exas- 

 perates, but does not disgust. If a man practises 

 the accordion all day in the next room you do not 

 loathe him, you only want to kill him. But any- 

 thing that stinks excites pure disgust. Here you 

 have the key to the fact that disgust and all feelings 

 akin to it, disdain, contempt and scorn, express 

 themselves through the nose. Darwin says that 

 when we think of anything base or vile in a man's 

 character the expression of the face is the same " as 

 if we smelled a bad smell." This is an example of 

 the temporary expression of a passing emotion, and 

 there are many others like it. But each of us has 

 his prevailing and dominant emotions which con- 



