MIRACLE MIRANDA. 



839 



as that by which we determine the truth of historical 

 accounts in general ; for, though miracles, in conse- 

 quence of their extraordinary nature, challenge a ful- 

 ler and more accurate investigation, still they do not 

 admit an investigation conducted on different princi- 

 ples, testimony being the only assignable medium of 

 proof for past events of any kind. While some writers 

 have entirely denied the possibility of miracles, others 

 have, with the same result, denied the possibility of 

 proving the occurrence of a miracle. Hume's argument 

 on this point is, that it is contrary to experience that a 

 miracle should be true, but it is not contrary to experi- 

 ence that testimony should be false : it is therefore 

 more improbable that the miracle should be true than 

 that the testimony should be false. Without dwel- 

 ling on the ambiguity of the expression " contrary to 

 experience," it may be replied that the improbability 

 arising from a want of experience of such events 

 is only equal to the probability of their repeti- 

 tion, this being the precise measure of the improba- 

 bility of their performance. To assert that, because 

 miracles have occurred, they ought to occur again, 

 or frequently, is to render a miracle impossible ; for 

 an event which is frequently occurring would cease 

 to be a miracle. The existence of a Supreme Intel- 

 ligence being allowed, the infrequency of miracles, 

 or their being against our experience, is no argu- 

 ment against their occurrence. Hume asserts that 

 a miracle is a contest of improbabilities ; and there is 

 no need of denying this assertion, as is usually done: 

 the improbability of a miracle is weakened by con- 

 sidering it an event in the moral system of the 

 universe not a causeless phenomenon, or a useless 

 violation of nature ; and the improbability that the 

 testimony to it should be false is strengthened by the 

 publicity of the event, the intelligence and honesty of 

 the witnesses, the consideration of the results which 

 followed it, &c. Further than this, the testimony, 

 under these circumstances, is a fact which it is more 

 easy to account for by allowing the event testified 

 to have actually taken place, than to have recourse 

 to any other hypothesis. In examining the different 

 objections which have been urged against miracles, 

 it will be seen that they arise, in general, from a 

 neglect of the existence of a moral system : when it 

 is objected that' they are against the usual course of 

 nature, that is, against all we know of the govern- 

 ment of God, it is forgotten that they are entirely in 

 accordance with his moral government, and that ex- 

 perience as fully proves the existence and nature, as 

 plainly teaches the character, of this government, as 

 of the physical system of the world. Most of the 

 miracles, of which history is full, may, indeed, be put 

 aside from want of sufficient testimony, from their 

 being useless, unnecessary, or even unworthy of a 

 wise and good Being, from the circumstance that the 

 workers of them did not lay any claim to divine 

 agency, from their having been without results, &c. 

 We may also reject those which are referrible to false 

 perceptions ; those which are merely tentative, that 

 is, belonging to a series of attempts of which some 

 were unsuccessful ; those which are doubtful in their 

 nature ; those which are merely exaggerations of 

 natural events, &c., especially if they are uncon- 

 nected with others of a different character, or with 

 moral effects ; so miracles which are in support of 

 an established creed, pretended to be wrought by 

 men vested with a divine character in the presence 

 of credulous devotees, if they do not belong to any of 

 those above cited, are to be looked upon with suspi- 

 cion. But, when miraculous powers are claimed 

 to be exerted by the opponents of what is estab- 

 lished in public opinion and supported by pub- 

 lic authority, in the face of opposition and in- 

 credulity, by men without influence or friends, and 



when they convince and confound their bitterest 

 enemies, and produce a change in their lives and 

 characters as a proof of their conversion, when 

 these witnesses, with no interested motives, but with 

 the certain prospect of suffering and persecution, 

 come forward and testify their belief, and when all these 

 results are declared to have been produced to prove 

 the divine origin of doctrines calculated to elevate 

 humanity, and the divine mission of teachers, who 

 spoke as no man had ever before spoken, we are 

 not surely to refer these to the illusions of credulity, 

 or the jugglings of imposture. It is not possible, in 

 a work of this nature, to go into a minute examina- 

 tion of particulars. The subject is fully and ably 

 treated in Campbell's Dissertation on Miracles, in 

 Reply to Hume ; in Paley's Evidences of Chris- 

 tianity; in Butler's Analogy of Natural and Re- 

 vealed Religion, and numerous other works. 



MIRAGE ; an optical phenomenon, produced 

 by refraction. The unusual elevation or apparent 

 approximation of coasts, mountains, ships, and other 

 objects, has long been known under the name of 

 looming ; and, if the same phenomenon is accom- 

 panied by inverted images, it is called a mirage. 

 The mirage is frequently observed on the surface of 

 the sea by sailors, and on dry sandy plains, as in 

 those of Egypt, where it was repeatedly seen by the 

 French, during their campaign in that country. The 

 appearance presented is that of a double image of 

 the object in the air ; one of the images being in the 

 natural position, the other inverted, so as to resemble 

 a natural object and its inverted image in the water. 

 It may be produced whenever the rays of light meet 

 in an oblique direction, the surface of a less refract- 

 ing medium than that in which they were previously 

 moving : they are thus turned back into the original 

 medium in the same direction in which they would 

 be impelled by reflection taking place at the com- 

 mon surface of the two mediums. The surface of 

 the earth or sea, becoming heated, communicates a 

 portion of its caloric to the superincumbent layer of 

 air, which thus becomes less dense than the superior 

 layers. The rays of light which proceed from an 

 object in the heated layer will then be bent down- 

 ward, and thus arrive at the end in such a direction 

 as to cause the object to appear above its actual 

 position. In the desert, where the surface is per- 

 fectly level, a plain thus assumes the appearance of a 

 lake, reflecting the shadows of objects within and 

 around it, and the thirsty traveller is often tantalized 

 with this appearance, which recedes, as, by approach- 

 ing it, he changes the angle of direction of the rays 

 which enter his eye. The mirage is commonly ver- 

 tical, that is, presenting the appearance above- 

 described of one object over another, like a ship 

 above its shadow in the water. Sometimes, how- 

 ever, the images are horizontal. On the surface of 

 the sea, the phenomenon may also be produced by 

 the difference of moisture in the layer of air in con- 

 tact with the water and the superior layer. See Optics. 



MIRANDA, DON FRANCISCO, the earliest martyr 

 of freedom in Spanish America, was born at Caracas, 

 of an ancient Spanish family. His grandfather was 

 governor of the province of Caracas. At the age of 

 twenty, he travelled through a great part of America 

 on foot, and afterwards received the commission of 

 colonel in the Spanish service. The governor of 

 Guatemala employed him on several important occa- 

 sions. In 1783, lie visited the United States of North 

 America, and then travelled on foot through Britain, 

 France, Italy, and Spain, against which he cherished 

 the bitterest hatred. In 1789, he was at Petersburg, 

 and Catharine endeavoured to engage him in her 

 service, but the events in France drew him to Paris. 

 Here he was employed on a mission to Pitt, and, 



