SUPERNATUBAL IN NATURE. 145 



and to endeavour to rehabilitate this dictum of Hume : " There is not to be found in all 

 history any miracle attested by a sufficient number of men of such unquestioned goodness, 

 education and learning as to secure us against all delusion in themselves; of such undoubted 

 integrity as to place them beyond all suspicion of any design to deceive others ; of such 

 credit and reputation in the eyes of mankind as to have a great deal to lose in case of their 

 being detected in any falsehood ; and at the same time, attesting facts performed in such a 

 public manner and in so cel'ebrated a part of the world as to render the detection unavoidable ; 

 all of which circumstances are requisite to give us full assurance in the testimony of men." 



ISTow is not this the acme of mental perversity, and blind, though perhaps unconscious, 

 partizanship ? By seeking to uphold a preconceived theory the noble qualities of the intellect 

 are insidiously denied, and the foundations of historic certainty overturned. If we cannot 

 have certainty of a miraculous event, neither can we have it of any other. For the instant- 

 aneous restoration of sight to one born blind, or the cleansing of a leper, or the raising of 

 one to life is an outward sensible fact belonging, as such, to the same categoiy as an earth- 

 quake, a battle, or the growth of a bean stalk. The divine nature of its efficient cause, and 

 the supernatural manner of its production, do not destroy, or change its external and visible 

 qualities. This being clear to all, it will be seen that men who deny the competency of a 

 crowd to bear reliable testimony to the occurrence of miracles, deny, by implication the 

 credibility of a farmer's assertion regarding the growth of his crops. The peacock is not a 

 beautiful bird when stripped of his gorgeous caudal feathers ; nor, we feel constrained to 

 admit, are there many elements of philosophic loveliness, or logical acumen, in showy treat- 

 ises against the miraculous, when shorn of their word-painting, and reduced to a basis of 

 verbal exactness. The vague has a charm for unreflecting minds, and in religion, science, 

 and literature has been the over fecund mother of deplorable evils. 



In investigating, then, the truth of an alleged miraculous event, the criteria of certainty 

 for ordinary historic facts are to be employed. Such an event, should it occur, is an excep- 

 tion to the general course of mundane things, and should not be hastily admitted. "We have 

 a right to demand an ample motive of credibility before accepting it as a fact : we have a 

 right to submit the evidence to a most rigid examination, and to apply the canons of historic 

 ci-iticism in the most searching manner. Should the evidence adduced stand the test, then 

 intellectual honesty demands that we accept as true the wonderful occurrence investigated. 



Let us supi^ose a credible witness should say he saw a man walking on the water. The 

 first impression would be that his eyes had played him false from some cause or another. 

 Still, on reflection we should think such a hallucination improbable. The probabilities are 

 that eyes which had been faithfully conveying impressions for years had not proved false on 

 that occasion. If the alleged miracle is improbable, improbable likewise is the deception. 

 Add another witness, and then a third, and the probability in favour of the miracle is doubled, 

 and trebled, whilst that of a hallucination is inversely decreased. Increase the number of 

 witnesses to eight, or ten, and the supposition of an ocular illusion is no longer probable ; 

 it is simply absurd. That ten persons who always saw aright should, at the same moment, 

 and in respect to the same sensible phenomenon, have the same ocular delusion, should be 

 more difficult of belief than the alleged fact. No man who wishes to deal frankly by his 

 intelligence could refuse to accept the testimony of ten credible witnesses ; especially since, 

 as we have shown, there is no intrinsic impossibility in miracles. 



Sec. n., 1894. 19. 



