Now the golden morn aloft

Waves her dew-bespangled wing,
With vermeil cheek and whisper soft
She wooes the tardy spring;
Till April starts and calls around
The sleeping fragrance from the ground,
And lightly o'er the living scene
Scatters his freshest, tenderest green.

Exercises

-JACKSON.

GRAY.

1. Bring to class examples of literary reference to odor, and note the odors most frequently mentioned.

2. Make a list of all the odors to which you are able to apply distinct terms, and name things having the odors mentioned.

3. You have been in the country or a city park in the springtime. You may be able to recall how the odors from the fresh ground, the flowers, and the blossoming shrubs and trees mingled with color, sound, and the different sense impressions which you received, and contributed to your enjoyment. Write an account of some spring day which you have spent under such conditions, and remember while speaking of the beauties and the music of nature, to mention her fragrance as well.

SECTION XLV

Impressions through the Sense of Taste

The impressions which people in general receive through the sense of taste are not so distinct and accurate as one may at first thought suppose. The principal characteristic tastes, such as sweet, sour, bitter, are understood and

recognized; but it is not so easy a matter to make fine and delicate distinctions and apply a correct term to the taste of even common articles of food. Expressions that suggest various taste images are very commonly used both in everyday speech and in literature; hence the training of the sense of taste through a careful consideration of different taste impressions will aid in an understanding and appreciation of these.

Many terms that apply primarily to taste are also applied to other things that do not have taste, because these things possess some imaginary resemblance to the idea which the name of these tastes suggest. For example, we apply the terms sweet, bitter, sour to various things that do not have taste, and say, a "sweet face," a "sweet voice," a "bitter fate," a sour expression." Often a comparison is made between a thing without taste and another having some particular taste in a marked degree, in order to suggest the possession of some quality in an equally marked degree, as when the poet Shakespeare, in order to express the exquisite delight of peaceful sleep, uses the expression “the honey dew of slumber." In the common proverb, " It is a bitter pill," we have an example of a similar use of taste in the suggestion of an imaginary resemblance. After the development of the sense of taste such literary allusions as the following have a new meaning:

A land of promise, a land of memory,
A land of promise flowing with the milk
And honey of delicious memories.

In heav'n the trees

- TENNYSON.

Of life ambrosial fruitage bear, the vines

Yield nectar.

- MILTON.

How shimmer the low flats and pastures bare,
As with her nectar Hebe Autumn fills

The bowl between me and those distant hills,
And smiles and shakes abroad her tremulous hair.
-LOWELL.

That was a day of delight and wonder,
While lying the shade of the maple tree under-
He felt the soft breeze at its frolicksome play;
He smelled the sweet odor of newly mown hay,
Of wilding blossoms in meadow and wood,
And flowers in the garden that orderly stood;
He drank of the milk foaming fresh from the cow,
He ate the ripe apples just pulled from the bough;
And lifted his hand to where hung in his reach,
All laden with honey, the ruddy-cheeked peach;
Beside him the blackberries juicy and fresh;
Before him the melon with odorous flesh;
There he had all for his use or his vision,
All that the wishes of mortals could seize
There where he lay in a country Elysian,
Happily, dreamily,

Under the trees.

-THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH.

Far overhead hang gorgeously

Large luscious berries of sanguine dye,

For the best grows highest, always highest,
Upon the mulberry tree.

Yet hark, how through the peopled air
The busy murmur glows!

The insect youth are on the wing,
Eager to taste the honeyed spring
And float amid the liquid nocn:
Some lightly o'er the current skim,
Some show their gayly gilded trim
Quick-glancing to the sun.

- MULOCK.

Sweet is the rose, but grows upon a brere;
Sweet is the juniper, but sharp its bough;
Sweet is the eglantine, but sticketh near;

GRAY.

NOTE.

Sweet is the firbloom, but its branches rough;
Sweet is the cypress, but its rind is tough;

Sweet is the nut, but bitter is his pill;

Sweet is the broom-flower, but yet sour enough;
And sweet is moly, but his root is ill.

Exercises similar to those suggested in preceding sections on Sense-training may be given if the teacher thinks it desirable.

SECTION XLVI

Impressions through the Sense of Touch

Another sense that is usually very imperfectly developed is that of touch. We are so in the habit of depending upon our sight and hearing to reveal the presence and character of objects, that we do not train our fingers to receive accurate impressions. To what extent the sense of touch can be developed is shown in the case of the blind, who learn not only to distinguish objects and determine their character and form almost as well as if they possessed the sense of sight, but also to read by merely passing their finger-tips over raised letters. In some cases the development of this sense has been so wonderful as to make the loss of sight, so far as the ascertaining of form is concerned, not so serious a matter as it might appear.

The sense of touch often supplements that of sight, or the sense of sight may confirm that of touch; and thus what

has been ascertained by the combined exercise of these two senses may upon another occasion be determined by one of them alone. For example, you may find that the bark on the trunk of the oak tree is rough, and that of the birch tree is smooth by passing your hand over them. By noting their appearance, you are able another time to judge of the roughness or smoothness, not only of the bark of trees, but of substances similar in character.

There are certain impressions or sensations, such as those of heat and cold, of which we are made conscious in a similar manner as we are of those which are received through the sense of touch. We may actually touch something which is hot or cold and so receive these sensations, or we may become conscious of heat or cold through coming in contact with the air about us. Hence we say," The air is warm,” "The atmosphere is moist," or in figurative language we may "The cool breeze fans her brow."

say,

In the following select the references to impressions received by means of the sense of touch:

Lay thy soft hand upon my brow and cheek,
O peaceful sleep.

The day was dying and with feeble hands
Caressed the mountain tops; the vales between
Darkened; the river in the meadow lands,

Sheathed itself as a sword and was not seen.

-LONGFELLow.

Vice stings us even in our pleasures, but virtue consoles us even in our pains. - COLTON.

The grass is soft, its velvet touch is grateful to the hand; And like the kiss of maiden's love, the breeze is soft and bland.