36. In reply to this, Masurius said;—But, my most excellent friend, are you not aware that it is in our brain that our senses are soothed, and indeed reinvigorated, by sweet smells? as Alexis says in his Wicked Woman, where he speaks thus—
The best recipe for health
Is to apply sweet scents unto the brain.
And that most valiant, and indeed warlike poet, Alcæus, says—
He shed a sweet perfume all o'er my breast.
And the wise Anacreon says somewhere—
Why fly away, now that you've well anointed
Your breast, more hollow than a flute, with unguents?
for he recommends anointing the breast with unguent, as being the seat of the heart, and considering it an admitted point that that is soothed with fragrant smells. And the ancients used to act thus, not only because scents do of their own nature ascend upwards from the breast to the seat of smelling, but also because they thought that the soul had its abode in the heart; as Praxagoras, and Philotimus the physician taught; and Homer, too, says—
He struck his breast, and thus reproved his heart.[128]