MIEACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES. 33 



Mr. Mozley concedes that it would be no great 

 result if miracles were only accepted by the ignorant 

 and superstitious, ' because it is easy to satisfy those 

 who do not enquire.' But he does consider it ' a great 

 result ' that they have been accepted by the educated. 

 In what sense educated? Like those statesmen, jurists, 

 and church dignitaries whose education was unable to 

 save them from the frightful errors glanced at above ? 

 Not even in this sense ; for the great mass of Mr. 

 Mozley's educated people had no legal training, and 

 must have been absolutely defenceless against delusions 

 which could set even that training at naught. Like 

 nine-tenths of our clergy at the present day, they were 

 versed in the literature of Greece, Rome, and Judea ; 

 but as regards a knowledge of nature, which is here the 

 one thing needful, they were ' noble savages,' and 

 nothing more. In the case of miracles, then, it 

 behoves us to understand the weight of the negative, 

 before we assign a value to the positive ; to comprehend 

 the depositions of nature, before we attempt to measure, 

 with them, the evidence of men. We have only to 

 open our eyes to see what honest and even intellectual 

 men and women are capable of, as to judging evidence, 

 in this nineteenth century of the Christian era, and in 

 latitude fifty-two degrees north. The experience thus 

 gained ought, I imagine, to influence our opinion 

 regarding the testimony of people inhabiting a sunnier 

 clime, with a richer imagination, and without a particle 



the reality of witchcraft was unquestionable ; " for first, the 

 Scriptures had affirmed so much ; and secondly, the wisdom of all 

 nations had provided laws against such persons, which is an argu- 

 ment of their confidence of such a crime." Sir Thomas Browne, 

 who was a great physician as well as a great writer, was called as a 

 witness, and swore " that he was clearly of opinion that the persons 

 were bewitched." ' Lecky's History of Rationalism, vol. i. p. 120. 

 VOL. II. D 



