THE MARPINGEN MIRACLES. 725 



grounds the possibility or actual occurrence of any subsequent phe- 

 nomena of the kind. That is a question of evidence, and, as Mr. 

 Lecky goes on to observe, " very few of the minor facts of history 

 are authenticated by as much evidence as " some of those later mir- 

 acles which he specifies, to one of which, by no means a favorite with 

 Ultramontanes, we may have occasion to refer presently. But there 

 are few subjects on which ordinary persons, even educated persons, 

 have such loose notions as on the true nature of evidence, or where 

 the wish, whether it be an innate feeling of sympathy or of antipathy, 

 is so apt to become father to the thought. And now we may proceed 

 without further preface to reproduce the main details of the marvel- 

 ous tale brought from Marpingen, a village in Rhenish Prussia, in 

 July, 1876, and which formed the text of a long debate in the Prus- 

 sian Parliament a fortnight aero. 



It appears that on two successive days, July 3d and 4th, three lit- 

 tle girls of the village of Marpingen announced that they had seen 

 the Virgin with her infant Son, sitting on the ground in a neighboring 

 wood, and on the second of these days she replied to their questions, 

 "I am she who was conceived without sin, and you should pray and 

 pray forever." On the third day the apparition was again visible and 

 discoursed to the children for some time, while a crowd, who had fol- 

 lowed them from the village kept apart reverentially from the hallowed 

 spot, the apparition being visible and audible to the three little girls 

 only. It was explained that this peculiar privilege was vouchsafed 

 to them because they were "the only innocent persons in the wood," 

 and the apparition expressly declined to see any of the neighboring 

 priests, but ordered a chapel to be built on the sp>ot from the proceeds 

 of a public subscriptioii. She finally, at their request, permitted an 

 invalid to be brought by the children to touch her feet, though he also 

 never saw her, and he was instantly cured. After this crowds came 

 to spend the night praying and singing in the wood, two or three of 

 whom declared that they saw the Virgin amid the trees, and the chil- 

 dren were kept constantly employed in laying the hands of the sick 

 on the feet of the invisible figure. They apparently, however, found 

 this burden too great for them, for a few days later they announced 

 that the water of a neighboring spring had been endowed with mirac- 

 ulous properties, and might be conveyed to those who were unable to 

 come themselves, and thenceforth the concourse of pilgrims increased. 

 Hereupon the civil authorities interfered, whether on account of dis- 

 turbances caused by the multitudes who congregated in the forest, or 

 from a fear that the miracle was intended to be utilized for purposes 

 of agitation against the Government. On July 13th, ten days after the 

 first apparition, the Bm-gomaster of Marpingen ordered the people to 

 leave the wood, and on their refusal had it cleared by the military ; 

 from that time it was guarded by police and soldiers quartered in the 

 village, where the inhabitants complain that forced requisitions were 



