356 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 
His logical warrant for this proceeding is not clear. It is 
the method of science, when a phenomenon presents itself, 
toward the production of which several elements may 
contribute, to exclude them one by one, so as to arrive 
at length at the truly effective cause. Heat, for example, is 
associated with a phenomenon; we exclude heat, but the 
phenomenon remains: hence, heat is not its cause. Mag- 
netism is associated with a phenomenon; we exclude rnag- 
netisnj, but the phenomenon remains: hence, magnetism 
is not its cause. Time, also, when we seek the cause of a 
diffusion of a religion whether it be due to miracles, or 
to the spiritual force of its founders we exclude the mir- 
acles, and, finding the result unchanged, we infer that 
miracles are not the effective cause. This important ex- 
periment Mohammedanism has made for us. It has lived 
and spread without miracles; and to assert, in the face of 
this, that Christianity has spread because of miracles, is, I 
submit, opposed both to the spirit of science and the com- 
mon sense of mankind. 
The incongruity of inferring moral goodness from mirac- 
ulous power has been dwelt upon above; in another par- 
ticular also the strain put by Mr. Mozley upon miracles is, 
I think, more than they can bear. In consistency with his 
principles, it is difficult to see how he is to draw from the 
miracles of Christ any certain conclusion as to His Divine 
nature. He dwells very forcibly on what he calls " the 
argument from experience," in the demolition of which he 
takes obvious delight. He destroys the argument, and 
repeats it, for the mere pleasure of again and again knock- 
ing the breath out of it. Experience, he urges, can only 
deal with the past; and the moment we attempt to project 
experience a hair's breadth beyond the point it has at any 
moment reached, we are condemned by reason. It appears 
to me that when he infers from Christ's miracles a Divine 
and altogether superhuman energy, Mr. Mozley places him- 
self precisely under this condemnation. For what is his 
logical ground for concluding that the miracles of the New 
Testament illustrate Divine power? May they not be the 
result of expanded human power? A miracle he defines as 
something impossible to man. But how does he know that 
the miracles of the New Testament are impossible to man? 
Seek as he may, he has absolutely no reason to adduce save 
this that man has never hitherto accomplished such 
