On Popular Bluftons. 95 



cumftance throws a doubt on thofe operations, 

 our fufpicions will increafe, when Montgeron's 

 own hiftory of his converfion is confidered. 

 " I determined," fays he*, " to go every day 

 " to the tomb, to obferve attentively whatever 

 ** fhould occur, refolving to believe nothing but 

 " my own eyes i to take the name and refidence 

 " of every patient, to examine them carefully 

 " myfelf, and to be infprmed accurately of the 

 " nature of their com.plaints by confulting their 

 ** medical attendants ; in fhort, to fpare no trou- 

 " ble, to difcover whether a fupernatural agency 

 " was exerted at the tomb, or whether there was 

 *' any deceit. But perceiving at the firft glance," 

 he adds, *' the attention, the penitence, and the 

 " ardour expreffed in the countenances of m.oft 

 ** of thofe who paid their devotions in that holy 

 *' place, I was ftruck with an internal fentiment 

 ** of refpect, never having Jeen any body fray Jo 

 '^fervently. I fell on my knees, refting my 



" elbows on the edge of the tomb." And 



from the inft'ant of ih\s, fentiment al converfion, it is 

 evident that Mr. de Montgeron's teftimony be- 

 comes of no value. But the matter does not 

 reft here. Mr. Des Voeux, paftor of the French 

 church at Dublin, in 1740 publifhed Nouvelles 

 Lettresjur les Miracles de M. Paris, in which, by 

 a painful examination of the fafts, he convi6ted 



• Mirac. de Converf, p. lo, ii. 



Montee-ron 



