Tell It Slant, Third Edition, 3rd Edition

5

Of Smells

Michel de Montaigne

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.[“She smells sweetest, who smells not at all.”

—PLAUTUS, MOSTEL, I. 3, 116.]

And such as make use of fine exotic perfumes are with ...