The Essays Chapter 55

(1, p. 130v-131v).Michel de MontaigneC155 Des senteursMontaigne - Essais, Éd de Bordeaux, 1.djvuMontaigne - Essais, Éd de Bordeaux, 1.djvu/1130v-131v
Chapitre 55 :
Des Senteurs

IL se dict d’aucuns, comme d’Alexandre le grand, que
leur sueur espandoit un’ odeur souefve, par quelque rare et
extraordinaire complexion, dequoy Plutarque et autres recherchent la cause. Mais la commune façon des corps
est au contraire ; et la
meilleure condition qu’ils ayent, c’est d’estre exempts de senteur. La
douceur mesmes des halaines plus pures n’a rien de plus excellent que
d’estre sans aucune odeur qui nous offence, comme sont celles des
enfans
bien sains. Voylà pourquoy, dict Plaute,

Mulier tum benè olet,

ubi nihil olet : la plus parfaicte senteur d’une femme c’est ne sentir
à rien,

Et les bonnes senteurs estrangieres, on a raison de les tenir pour
suspectes à ceux qui s’en servent, et d’estimer qu’elles soyent
employées pour couvrir quelque defaut naturel de ce costé-là.
D’où
naissent ces rencontres des Poetes anciens : c’est puïr que de santir
bon,

Rides nos, Coracine, nil olentes.
Malo quam bene olere, nil olere. Et ailleurs :

Posthume, non benè olet, qui benè semper olet.

Namque sagacius unus odoror,
Polypus, an gravis hirsutis cubet hircus in alis
Quam canis acer ubi lateat sus.

Chapter LV. Of smells.

It has been reported of some, as of Alexander the Great, that their sweat

exhaled an odoriferous smell, occasioned by some rare and extraordinary

constitution, of which Plutarch and others have been inquisitive into the

cause. But the ordinary constitution of human bodies is quite otherwise,

and their best and chiefest excellency is to be exempt from smell. Nay,

the sweetness even of the purest breath has nothing in it of greater

perfection than to be without any offensive smell, like those of

healthful children, which made Plautus say of a woman:

"Mulier tum bene olet, ubi nihil olet."

And such as make use of fine exotic perfumes are with good reason to be

suspected of some natural imperfection which they endeavour by these

odours to conceal. To smell, though well, is to stink:

"Rides nos, Coracine, nil olentes

Malo, quam bene olere, nil olere."

And elsewhere:

"Posthume, non bene olet, qui bene semper olet."

I am nevertheless a great lover of good smells, and as much abominate the

ill ones, which also I scent at a greater distance, I think, than other

men:

"Namque sagacius unus odoror,

Polypus, an gravis hirsutis cubet hircus in aliis

Quam canis acer, ubi latest sus."

Of smells, the simple and natural seem to me the most pleasing. Let the

ladies look to that, for 'tis chiefly their concern: amid the most

profound barbarism, the Scythian women, after bathing, were wont to

powder and crust their faces and all their bodies with a certain

odoriferous drug growing in their country, which being cleansed off, when

they came to have familiarity with men they were found perfumed and

sleek. 'Tis not to be believed how strangely all sorts of odours cleave

to me, and how apt my skin is to imbibe them. He that complains of

nature that she has not furnished mankind with a vehicle to convey smells

to the nose had no reason; for they will do it themselves, especially to

me; my very mustachios, which are full, perform that office; for if I

stroke them but with my gloves or handkerchief, the smell will not out a

whole day; they manifest where I have been, and the close, luscious,

devouring, viscid melting kisses of youthful ardour in my wanton age left

a sweetness upon my lips for several hours after. And yet I have ever

found myself little subject to epidemic diseases, that are caught, either

by conversing with the sick or bred by the contagion of the air, and have

escaped from those of my time, of which there have been several sorts in

our cities and armies. We read of Socrates, that though he never

departed from Athens during the frequent plagues that infested the city,

he only was never infected.

Physicians might, I believe, extract greater utility from odours than

they do, for I have often observed that they cause an alteration in me

and work upon my spirits according to their several virtues; which makes

me approve of what is said, that the use of incense and perfumes in

churches, so ancient and so universally received in all nations and

religions, was intended to cheer us, and to rouse and purify the senses,

the better to fit us for contemplation.

I could have been glad, the better to judge of it, to have tasted the

culinary art of those cooks who had so rare a way of seasoning exotic

odours with the relish of meats; as it was particularly observed in the

service of the king of Tunis, who in our days landed at Naples to have an interview with Charles the Emperor. His

dishes were larded with odoriferous drugs, to that degree of expense that

the cookery of one peacock and two pheasants amounted to a hundred ducats

to dress them after their fashion; and when the carver came to cut them

up, not only the dining-room, but all the apartments of his palace and

the adjoining streets were filled with an aromatic vapour which did not

presently vanish.

My chiefest care in choosing my lodgings is always to avoid a thick and

stinking air; and those beautiful cities, Venice and Paris, very much

lessen the kindness I have for them, the one by the offensive smell of

her marshes, and the other of her dirt.