Page:Dan McKenzie - Aromatics and the Soul.pdf/158

146 were out of place,—and then I also turn to look at the butterfly bean-flowers in the field at our feet.

Now as often as the bean blooms, so does her memory.

How powerfully associations affect our olfactory likes and dislikes we hinted on a former page, and in this matter of smell-memories we can observe the same effect. Smells which to others seem offensive may, if they arouse a pleasant memory, borrow from it a tinge that turns their offence into a joy for ever. In my own case iodine and the rather irritating odour of bleaching powder are always welcome and always sweet. Yet they recall nothing more interesting than the days of childhood to me ! On the other hand, perfumes generally considered to be pleasant will be objectionable to us if they arouse unhappy memories.

The most beautiful, however, arc those which have been young with us, and yet have never forsaken us, by continual refreshment keeping an eternal youth. And of all the odours in life none surely is 80 rich both in retrospect and in prospect as the smell of books to him who loves them. The cosy invitation of a library | Not a public library, needless to say, where the intimate appeal is lost