Through the sense of hearing man communicates orally with man, and man utters his prayers and praises orally to God, as if God heard with ears like those of organic beings. It is natural that we should thus address ourselves to the Almighty, because our conceptions of him are necessarily limited by the measure of our minds, expansive as regards the lower creation, but narrow--oh, how narrow!--compared with the wisdom of the uncreate Eternal. "He that planted the ear, shall he not hear!"[18] It matters not whether we murmur forth with our lips, or silently think them in our mind--God hears them. He hears the language of our heart, the aspirations and vows of our inmost soul: and he knows, too, (and he alone can know,) whether we be sincere or the contrary. The tongue of the hypocrite may deceive men, but not God; nay, we may deceive ourselves by our own verbiage, but God distinguishes the prayer inspired by the Spirit of truth, from the empty declaration of excitement. [18] Psa. xciv. 9. Thus, then, is the ear an inlet of a vast amount of knowledge to the mind; it conveys what the eye cannot convey, and it assists the eye, while in turn by the eye it is assisted; and, indeed, that one sense shall support another, and be again supported, or corrected, is ordained by our Creator, who in wisdom has fashioned our mortal framework, the tenement of an undying soul. 3. _Taste._--The sense of taste conveys to the mind an impression from objects, very dissimilar to that which is gained through the medium of the eye or of the ear; nay, dissimilar to that conveyed by the sense of touch. The sense of taste resides in the mouth; that is, it pervades the tongue, the palate, and the pharynx, on which are distributed fine ramifications of the fifth, eighth, and ninth pair of nerves. Taste is the appreciation of the savour of bodies, or, in other words, of certain chemical qualities, which, acting on the nerves, give to our mind an agreeable or disagreeable sensation; hence the terms sweet, luscious, acid, vinous, sour, bitter, saline, spicy, aromatic, etc. Some bodies, however, are tasteless--pure distilled water is tasteless, and so would a small globe of glass be, however long it was held in the mouth; but if we put our tongue to a piece of brass, or copper, we perceive at once a peculiar flavour, resulting from the oxydized film on its surface mingling with the saliva covering the nervous papillæ of the tongue.