the ground of common sense and plain reasoning again.
After observing, a little before, that 'nothing is more untrue than that
sensations of vision do necessarily leave more vivid and durable
ideas than those of grosser senses,' he proceeds to give a number of
illustrations in support of this position. 'Notwithstanding,' he says,
'the advantages here enumerated in favour of sight, I think there is
no doubt that a man will come to forget acquaintance, and many other
visible objects, noticed in mature age, before he will in the least
forget taste and smells, of only moderate interest, encountered either
in his childhood or at any time since.

'In the course of voyaging to various distant regions, it has several
times happened that I have eaten once or twice of different things that
never came in my way before nor since. Some of these have been pleasant,
and some scarce better than insipid; but I have no reason to think I
have forgot, or much altered the ideas left by those single impulses of
taste; though here the memory of them certainly has not been preserved
by repetition. It is clear I must have seen as well as tasted those
things; and I am decided that I remember the tastes with more precision
than I do the visual sensations.

'I remember having once, and only once, eat Kangaroo in New Holland; and
having once smelled a baker's shop having a peculiar odour in the city
of Bassorah. Now both these gross ideas remain with me quite as vivid as
any visual ideas of those places; and this could not be from repetition,
but really from interest in the sensation.

'Twenty-eight years ago, in the island of Jamaica, I partook (perhaps
twice) of a certain fruit, of the taste of which I have now a very fresh
idea; and I could add other instances of that period.

'I have had repeated proofs of having lost retention of visual objects,
at various distances of time, though they had once been familiar. I
have not, during thirty years, forgot the delicate, and in itself most
trifling sensation that the palm of my hand used to convey, when I was a
boy, trying the different effects of what boys call _light_ and _heavy_
tops; but I cannot remember within several shades of the brown coat
which I left off a week ago. If any man thinks he can do better, let him
take an ideal survey of his wardrobe, and then actually refer to it for
proof.

'After retention of such ideas, it certainly would be very difficult to
persuade me that feeling, t