584 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that of the "holy thorn" (narrated in tlie "History of the Port- 

 Royalists "), whicli stood the test of the most rigid contemporary in- 

 quiry, carried on at the prompting of a hostile ecclesiastical party, 

 seem to me fully explicable on the like principle of the action of 

 strongly-excited "faith "in producing bodily change, whether bene- 

 ficial or injurious ; and nothing but the fact that this strong excite- 

 ment was called forth by religious influences, which in all ages have 

 been more potent in arousing it than influences of any other kind, 

 gives the least color to the assumption of their supernatural char- 

 acter. 



I might draw many other illustrations from the lives of the saints 

 of various periods of the Roman Catholic Church, as chronicled by 

 their contemporaries, many of whom speak of therhselves as eye-wit- 

 nesses of the marvels they relate ; thus, the "levitation of the human 

 body" i. e., the rising from the ground, and the remaining unsup- 

 ported in the air for a considerable length of time is one of the mira- 

 cles attributed to St. Francis d'Assisi. But it will be enough for me 

 to refer to the fact that some of the ablest ecclesiastical historians in 

 the English Church have confessed their inability to see on what 

 grounds so far as externcel evidence is concerned we are to reject 

 these, if the testimony of the Biblical narratives is to be accepted as 

 valid evidence of the supernatural occurrences they relate. 



But the most remarkable example I have met with in recent times 

 of the " survival " in a whole community of ancient modes of thought 

 on these subjects (the etymological meaning of the term " siapersti- 

 tion " ) has been very recently made public by a German writer, who 

 has given an account of the population of a corner of Eastern Austria, 

 termed the Bukowina, a large proportion of which are Jews, mostly 

 belonging to the sect of the Chassidim, who are ruled by "Saints" or 

 " Just Ones." " These saints," says their delineator, " are sly impostors, 

 w^ho take advantage of the fanaticism, superstition, and blind ignorance 

 of the Chassidim in the most barefaced manner. They heal the sick 

 by pronouncing magic words, drive out devils, gain lawsuits, and their 

 curse is supposed to kill whole families, or at least to reduce them to 

 beggary. Between the ' saint ' and ' God ' there is no mediator, for he 

 holds personal intercourse with the Father of all, and his words are 

 oracles. Woe to those who should venture to dispute these miracles 

 in the presence of these unreasonable fanatics ! They are ready to 

 die for their superstitions, and to kill those who dispute them." ' 



Now, I fail to see what stronger external evidence there is of any 

 of the supernatural occurrences chronicled in the Old Testament than 

 that which is afibrded by the assured conviction of this Jewish com- 

 munity as to what is taking place at the present time under their own 

 eyes. And, assuming, as I suppose most of us should be ready to do, 

 that the testimony of these contemporary wonders would break down 



* E. Kilian, in Fraser^s Magazine for December, 18Y5. 



