SECT. 18.] Credibility of Extraordinary Stories. 425 



they would probably soon come to discredit it afterwards, 

 or so explain it as to evacuate it of all that is meant by 

 miraculous. 



18. It appears to me therefore, on the whole, that 

 very little can be made of these problems of testimony in 

 the way in which it is generally intended that they should 

 be treated ; that is, in obtaining specific rules for the esti 

 mation of the testimony under any given circumstances. 

 Assuming that the veracity of the witness can be measured, 

 we encounter the real difficulty in the utter impossibility of 

 determining the limits within which the failures of the event 

 in question are to be considered to lie, and the degree of 

 explicitness with which the witness is supposed to answer 

 the enquiry addressed to him ; both of these being charac 

 teristics of which it is necessary to have a numerical esti 

 mate before we can consider ourselves in possession of the 

 requisite data. 



Since therefore the practical resource of most persons, 

 viz. that of putting a direct and immediate correction, of 

 course of a somewhat conjectural nature, upon the general 

 trustworthiness of the witness, by a consideration of the 

 nature of the circumstances under which his statement is 

 made, is essentially unscientific and irreducible to rule ; it 

 really seems to me that there is something to be said in 

 favour of the simple plan of trusting in all cases alike to 

 the witness general veracity 1 . That is, whether his story 

 is ordinary or extraordinary, we may resolve to put it on 

 the same footing of credibility, provided of course that the 

 event is fully recognized as one which does or may occa- 



1 In the first edition this was that (as was shown in 7) this 



stated, as it now seems to me, in de- plan is really the best theoretical 



cidedly too unqualified a manner. one which can be adopted in certain 



It must be remembered, however, cases. 



