Page:Mexico, picturesque, political, progressive.djvu/55

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ODORS OF ARABY
53

discovered more smells of rare and distinct species than we dreamed this round world could hold. The smells of Mexico are massive and infinitive: they are the only one of her resources which has been worked for all it is worth. According to the principle in natural law, which makes one more readily cognizant of vice than of virtue, we notice the bad odors most now; but by means of that divine system of compensation which makes the memory of evil fade, while that of good lives forever, it is the scent of her rose-gardens, the sweet, evanescent perfumes of her tangled flower-hedges, and thickets of fragrant shrubs, that we will remember during the long Northern days when all this changeful experience shall seem but a midsummer night's dream.