7 2 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



made on them, and the place treated as though occupied by a hostile 

 army. It was a formal motion for the repayment to the commune of 

 the 4,000 marks (about 200) said to have been thus levied on it, and 

 for the reprimand of the local magistrates for harsh and arbitrary con- 

 duct, that led to the debate in the Prussian Parliament. It should bo 

 added that the three little girls and a priest of the district were ar- 

 rested on suspicion of religious fraud, but eventually released for lack 

 of sufficient evidence, the girls stoutly denying that they had been 

 inspired by either priest or parent. Entrance to the wood is still pro- 

 hibited, but processions take place to the miraculous spring. 



Now, the first observation that would occur to any one on reading 

 this strange story is the conspicuous absence of anything like evi- 

 dence of the alleged apparition, even putting aside the suspicion of 

 deliberate fraud. The Madonna is visible to three little girls only, of 

 about seven years of age, whose religious imagination might easily 

 be excited, especially if they had heard of former apparitions of the 

 same kind, as is more than probable. And when once they had com- 

 mitted themselves to the story whether in simple piety or under 

 some external influence fear of consequences would alone secure 

 their adhesion to it. But this leads us on to another and more impor- 

 tant comment, which will already have occurred to many of our read- 

 ers, especially if they have taken note of the passages in the tale 

 which we have italicized. The close resemblance in all its leading 

 features to several former tales of miraculous apparition, and, above 

 all, to the apparition at Lourdes, is too obvious and too minute to be 

 considered accidental. Whether we suppose the whole affair to be an 

 imposture pure and simple, as is likely enough, or whether we adopt 

 the more charitable hypothesis of hallucination, there can hardly be a 

 doubt that the Lourdes miracle suggested the incidents of the Mar- 

 pingen one. In both cases, as before at La Salette, young children 

 are the sole witnesses of the marvel ; in both cases it is the Virgin 

 who appears, and, while at Lourdes she oddly describes herself as be- 

 ing "the Immaculate Conception," at Marpingen the more grammati- 

 cal formula is adopted, " I am she who was conceived without sin ; " 

 in both cases multitudes follow the children, but are obliged to take 

 on faith what to them, and to them alone, is matter of sight and hear- 

 ing; in both cases, and this is significant, the Madonna expressly 

 directs a chapel to be built on the spot, and that indeed appears to be 

 the chief object of the apparition ; and, lastly, in both cases a miracu- 

 lous spring is either created or disclosed. On this last point we have 

 another word to say. It is of course argued by the defenders of these 

 miracles, and is in fact the only plausible argument left to them, that 

 whatever becomes of the evidence of the children for the original tale 

 even though they should turn out afterward as the boy and girl at 

 La Salette did turn out there is no getting over the evidence of the 

 miraculous cures. The reply is not far to seek. There might be, and 



