OUR five senses, which are those of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, are precious gifts, for which we cannot be grateful enough to our blessed Maker. But He does not mean that we should trust to these alone for all that we require to know. He has given us the power of reason, to enable us to judge rightly about many things which we could not properly know by means of our senses alone. We learn from experience that very often things appear to our eyes different from what they really are. Thus we soon come to know that a man, or a tree, or a house, looks smaller at a great distance than close at hand. And therefore, when we look at the sun or the moon, we do not think it to be only as large as it seems to be. So, when we see a statue on the top of a very lofty column, and it appears to be no bigger than a man of ordinary size, we reason from experience, and are sure that the statue is a great deal larger than it looks, and would present the appearance of a huge giant, if it were placed on the ground before us. We learn, too, from experience, that some Book 3.] B |