THE MARPINGEN MIRACLES. 727 



indeed are, examples of seemingly supernatural cures we will men- 

 tion one directly attested by very strong evidence, but these are cer- 

 tainly not among them. Putting aside innumerable instances of fail- 

 ure and some of detected imposture which have been heard of in con- 

 nection with Lourdes it is too early yet to apply that test to Marpin- 

 g en _it must never be forgotten how almost incalculable is the power 

 of imagination over every kind especially of nervous disorder. There 

 are unquestionably many persons of whom it may be said, in a differ- 

 ent sense from that of the words as originally used, that " their faith 

 has made them whole ; " or, on the contrary, has made them ill. A 

 ready instance comes to hand in connection with the recent hydropho- 

 bia scare. There can be no doubt that tetanus, which so closely sim- 

 ulates hydrophobia as often to be indistinguishable from it to all but 

 adepts, may be and is produced by fear ; and thus nervous persons 

 who assume that a dog which bites them must be mad though the 

 chances are always really at least ten to one the other way may easi- 

 ly give themselves a fatal disease without any external cause. On the 

 other hand, a case was reported the other day from Italy, of a woman 

 who was raving, as was supposed, from hydrophobia, but who prompt- 

 ly recovered on a miraculous relic being applied to her. The same 

 explanation will cover innumerable cases, whether at Lourdes or else- 

 where, of alleged miraculous cures. But we observed just now that 

 there are examples on record of miraculous cures, the direct evidence 

 of which is very striking. The late Sir James Stephen mentions one 

 of them in these words: "The greatest genius, the most profound 

 scholar, and the most eminent advocate of that age (the seventeenth 

 century), all possessing the most ample means of knowledge, all care- 

 fully investigated, all admitted, and all defended with their pens, the 

 miracle of the Holy Thorn. Europe at that time produced no three 

 men more profoundly conversant with the laws of the material world, 

 with the laws of the human mind, and with the municipal law, than 

 Pascal, Arnauld, and Le Maitre ; and they were all sincere and ear- 

 nest believers." Mr. Lecky similarly observes that few historical facts 

 are so well authenticated as " the miracles of the Holy Thorn, or at 

 the tomb of the Abbe Paris," which last, we may add, were attested 

 among others by Voltaire. Be it so, but these are " Jansenist " mir- 

 acles which Ultramontanes have always and scornfully refused to 

 admit. The manifestations at the tomb of the Abbe Paris were actu- 

 ally suppressed by authority, ecclesiastical and civil, which suggested 

 the famous epigram : 



" De par le roi, defense ft Dieu 

 De faire miracle en ce lieu." 



Those who reject the far stronger evidence of these miracles must 

 find some better argument than the alleged cures if they would have 

 us accept the miraculous portents of Lourdes and Marpingen. 



The debate in the Prussian Chamber was opened by Herr Bachem, 



