84 PHYSIOLOGICAL ÆSTHETICS.
of the aesthetically hideous. But the fragrance of fruits and
spices very nearly approaches the requisite freedom from
life-serving function ; because the taste which it suggests is
of the kind least intimately connected with organic wants.
And when we pass on from these lower instances to those
sweet odours which are utterly unconnected with the organs
of digestion, such as the perfume of a rose, a violet, or a
lily-of-the-valley, the smell of new-mown hay, the aroma of
newly-ploughed land, we feel that these, even in the ac-
— «
tuality, are in almost every respect raised into the aesthetic
class. Moreover, the perfume-exciting qualities of the rose
or the violet are not destroyed in the act of smelling them, as
the taste-exciting qualities of a peach or a pear are destroyed
in the act of eating them. So that we have here, to a con¬
siderable extent, that absence of monopoly which we saw to
be one of the distinguishing marks of aesthetic objects. And
if these objects in the actuality arouse feelings so nearly
approaching the aesthetic level, we naturally find their ideal
representation entering largely into the composition of
Poetry. Of course here, too, we must make great allow¬
ances for beauty of form and colour, but we cannot doubt
that some part in the poetical effectiveness of fragrant
flowers must be attributed to the sense of Smell
§ 4. Cookery and Perfumery.
There are two arts which, though not aesthetic, stand in
the same relation to the senses of Taste and Smell as paint¬
ing and music do to those of sight and hearing. Conse¬
quently, they throw a little light upon the purely aesthetic