MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES. 9 



of courtesy with the earnestness of debate. From one 

 of these, nearly a year ago, I received a note, recom- 

 mending strongly to my attention the volume of 

 ' Bampton Lectures' for 1865, in which the question of 

 miracles is treated by Mr. Mozley. Previous to re- 

 ceiving this note, I had in part made the acquaintance 

 of the work through an able and elaborate review of it 

 in the ' Times.' The combined effect of the letter and 

 the review was to make the book the companion of my 

 summer tour in the Alps. There, during the wet and 

 snowy days which were only too prevalent in 1866, and 

 during the days of rest interpolated between days of 

 toil, I made myself more thoroughly conversant with 

 Mr. Mozley's volume. I found it clear and strong an 

 intellectual tonic, as bracing and pleasant to my mind 

 as the keen air of the mountains was to my body. 

 From time to time I jotted down thoughts regarding 

 it, intending afterwards to work them up into a cohe- 

 rent whole. Other duties, however, interfered with the 

 complete carrying out of this intention, and what I 

 wrote last summer I now publish, not hoping to be 

 able, within any reasonable time, to render my defence 

 of scientific method more complete. 



Mr. Mozley refers at the outset of his task to the 

 movement against miracles which of late years has 

 taken place, and which determined his choice of a 

 subject. He acquits modern science of having had any 

 great share in the production of this movement. The 

 objection against miracles, he says, does not arise from 

 any minute knowledge of the laws of nature, but simply 

 because they are opposed to that plain and obvious 

 order of nature which everybody sees. The present 

 movement is, he thinks, to be ascribed to the greater 

 earnestness and penetration of the present age. For- 

 merly miracles were accepted without question, because 



