MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES. 349 
Mozley's volume. I found it clear and strong an intellec- 
tual 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 afterward 
to work them up into a coherent whole. Other duties, how- 
ever, 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 defense of scientific method more complete. 
Mr. Mozlev refers at the outset of his task to the move- 
ment 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 pro- 
duction 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. 
Formerly miracles were accepted without question, because 
without reflection; but the exercise of the " historic imag- 
ination" is a characteristic of our own time. Men are now 
accustomed to place before themselves vivid images of 
historic facts; and when a miracle rises to view, they halt 
before the astounding occurrence, and, realizing it with 
the same clearness as if it were now passing before their 
eyes, they ask themselves, " Can this have taken place?" 
In some instances the effort to answer this question has led 
to a disbelief in miracles, in others to a strengthening of 
belief. The aim of Mr. Mozley's lectures is to show that 
the strengthening of belief is the logical result which ought 
to follow from the examination of the facts. 
Attempts have been made by religious men to bring the 
Scripture miracles within the scope of the order of nature, 
but all such attempts are rejected by Mr. Mozley as utterly 
futile and wide of the mark. Regarding miracles as a 
necessary accompaniment of a revelation, their evidential 
value in his eyes depends entirely upon their deviation 
from the order of nature. Thus deviating, they suggest 
and illustrate a power higher than nature, a " personal 
will;" and they commend the person in whom this power 
is vested as a messenger from on high. Without these 
credentials such a messenger would have no right to demand 
