AROMATICS AND THE SOUL
CHAPTER I
OLFACTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH
I sing of smells, of scents, perfumes, odours, whiffs and niffs; of aromas, bouquets and fragrances ; and also, though temperately and restrainedly I promise you, of effluvia, reeks, fœtors, stenches, and—stinks.
A few years ago I stood before the public singing another song. By no means a service of praise it was, but something of the order of a denunciatory psalm, wherein I invoked the wrath of the high gods upon such miscreants as make life hideous with din.
You must not think that imprecations cannot be sung. All emotional utterance is song, said Carlyle ; only he said it not quite 80 briefly, And, leaving on one side the vituperations of his enemies by King David (if he it was who wrote the Psalms) which we still chant upon certain days of the
