But let us hope and pray, that the savage and unnecessary war which is now being waged in the east will be the last, and that in the near future, two or more of the great nations of the globe will so police the world, that peace on earth and good will toward men will everywhere prevail. ILLUSIONS OF THE SENSES Our senses have been called the "Five Gateways of Knowledge" because all that we know of the world in which we live reaches the mind, either directly or indirectly, through these avenues. From the "ivory palace," in which she dwells apart, and which we call the skull, the mind sends forth her scouts--sight, hearing, feeling, taste, and smell--bidding them bring in reports of all that is going on around her, and if the information which they furnish should be untrue or distorted, the most dire results might follow. She, therefore, frequently compares the tale that is told by one with the reports from the others, and in this way it is found that under some conditions these reporters are anything but reliable; the stories which they tell are often distorted and untrue, and in some cases their tales have no foundation whatever in fact, but are the "unsubstantial fabric of a vision." It is, therefore, of the greatest importance to us, that we should find out the points on which these information bearers are most likely to be deceived so that we may guard against the errors into which they would otherwise certainly lead us. All the senses are liable to be imposed upon under certain conditions. The senses of taste and of smell are frequently the subject of phantom smells and tastes, which are as vivid as the sensations produced by physical causes acting in the regular way. Even those comparatively new senses[9] which have been differentiated from the sense of touch and which, with the original five, make up the mystic number seven, are very untrustworthy guides under certain circumstances. Thus we all know how the sense of heat may be deceived by the old experiment of placing one hand in a bowl of cold water and the other in a bowl of hot water, and then, after a few minutes, placing both hands together in a bowl of tepid water; the hand, which has been in the cold water will feel warm, while that which has just been taken from the hot water, will feel quite cold. We have all experienced the deceptions to which the sense of hearing exposes us. Who has not heard sounds which had no existence except in our own sensations? And every one is familiar with the illusions to which we are liable when under the influence of a skilful ventriloquist. Even the sense of touch, which most of us regard as infallible, is liable to gross deception. When we have "felt" anything we are always confident as to its shape, number, hardness, etc., but the following very simple experiment shows that this confidence may be misplaced: [Illustration: Fig. 22.]