336 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



regarding the possibility of historical evidence for the 

 occurrence of definite miracles, notably the miracles 

 recorded in the New Testament. Miracles are looked 

 upon mainly as events which differ from, or break 

 through, the usual and customary order of things as 

 testified by the accumulated evidence of living and 

 trustworthy historical witnesses. There is indeed under- 

 lying the argument of Hume, in whose philosophy the 

 idea of custom plays an important part, the conception 

 of a universal, unalterable order without the assumption 

 of which all human argument on things and events is 

 impossible. But it has not been sufficiently pointed out 

 either by Hume or by any of his successors, except in 

 quite recent times, that this universal and unalterable 

 order may possibly refer only to that restricted though 

 increasing array of facts and events upon which our 

 thoughts can profitably and usefully dwell in detail, 

 and which form the object of such of our active mental 

 enquiry as we can put to useful purpose in the regulation 

 of the details of individual and social life. We are apt 

 to overlook the much larger and wider array of facts and 

 events in the face of which we must assume a merely 

 contemplative and receptive attitude. In the age of 

 Hume philosophers had only just begun to be impressed 

 by the extraordinary fruitfulness which the knowledge 

 of a few well-established relations in the region of 

 physical science promised to have for the progress of 

 human thought and culture. Since that age this know- 

 ledge has been enormously increased by the discovery of 

 an additional small number of similar relations, by 



