SUPEENATURAL IN NATURE. 137 



tlio true sense sciences ; for science is a knowledge of things tlirough tlieir final causes. In 

 metaphysics, however, the human mind soars to loftier heights ; it does not fold its wings 

 and cry out Eureka, when it has come to the last phenomenon of a series ; it rather plumes 

 its pinions for a more sublime flight, pierces the material veil in its upward course, and 

 reveals in tlie white light of well-reasoned truth the cause l)oth instrumental and efficient of 

 the phenomenon. Only by the study of metaphysics are the dignity and power of the human 

 intellect fully unfolded, and man fitted to grapple with and explain, to a reasonable extent, 

 the mysteries which encompass us on all sides. The latter day rejection of the miraculous 

 does not arise from advance of knowledge, nor from any demonstrable opposition between it 

 and the laws of physical nature, liut rather from a habit of mind engendered liy eliminating 

 meta])liysics, from its once honoured pdsition, on the syllabus of matriculatory examinations. 

 Severe reasoning in the realm of causality has been replaced by an unskilled empiricism in the 

 domain of phenomena. 



A thoughtful consideration of the points to which we have adverted seems necessary 

 before a proper investigation of our subject can be hoped for. In it we must go behind the 

 merely physical, and the ordinary eftects of its laws. We are not to say that everything 

 unusual is untrue, or that every alleged fact opposed to our preconceived ideas is unworthy 

 of examination. This would be the dogmatism of ignorance, and the intolerance of scientific 

 prejudice. The Society of Psychic Research, numbering in its ranks many eminent scholars, 

 has not tleemed it a profitless study to investigate alleged manifestations of the spirit world. 

 How much less unbecoming will it be to inquire whether there be any solid fouiulation in 

 fact, or any warrant in nature's law for one of the oldest and most widespread beliefs of man- 

 kind, viz., that of miracles, or the intervention at times, of the Supreme Being in the 

 ordinarj- course of events ? Whatever may be one's own conviction in this regard, one is 

 obliged to admit that through the literature of every nation, from the papyrus rolls of Egypt, 

 and the parchments of the Bible, to the penny catechism of to-day, — through the traditions 

 and folk-lore of the various tribes of men, there is a clearly expressed belief in the miraculous. 

 Now, can this belief of the human race through so many cycles be proved, by science, to be 

 foundationless ? Or can it be shown to rest on a basis embechled in the plan and order of 

 creation ? This question is not one of sligiit importance viewed as an unvarying belief of our 

 kind. Both in its ethical and metaphysical aspect it claims, fnjni broad minded men, con- 

 scientious study and patient research. 



In the language of the uneducated man}' events are called miracles, or are said to be 

 miraculous, when they are merely unusual, or wonderful ; or when their cause is unknown. 

 All that occurs to be said of these so called miracles is to express surprise, and regret, that 

 some men of science should seize on them as representative miracles, and from their evident 

 lack of the conditions postulated for a real miracle, endeavour most illogically to conclude 

 that no miracle ever did, or could take place. The object of this paper is not to defend this, 

 or that, or in fact any specifically designated miraculous event ; it is rather to deal with 

 underlying principles, and to see whether right reason, informed and guided by correct 

 metaphysical ideas, and an enlightened knowledge of physical laws, can show or not, the 

 a priori impossibility of miracles properly so called. If it cannot, then the reasonable man 

 should only ask for satisfactory proof of their existence ; if that be given he should accept 

 them as readily as an}' other conclusion of an accurate science. 



Stc. II., 1S94. 22. 



