376 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 
evidential, the energy was wasted, because the Israelites 
knew nothing of its amount; if simply destructive, then 
the ratio of the quantity lost to the quantity employed, may 
be inferred from the foregoing figures. 
To other miracles similar remarks apply. Transferring 
our thoughts from this little sand-grain of an earth to the 
immeasurable heavens, where countless worlds with freights 
of life probably revolve unseen, the very suns which warm 
them being barely visible across abysmal space; reflecting 
that beyond these sparks of solar tire suns innumerable 
may burn, whose light can never stir the optic nerve at all; 
and bringing these reflections face to face with the idea of 
the Builder and Sustainer of it all showing Himself in a 
burning bush, exhibiting His hinder parts, or behaving in 
other familiar ways ascribed to Him in the Jewish Scrip- 
tures, the incongruity must appear. Did this credulous 
prattle of the ancients about miracles stand alone; were 
it not associated with words of imperishable wisdom, and 
with examples of moral grandeur unmatched elsewhere in 
the history of the human race, both the miracles and their 
"evidences" would have long since ceased to be the trans- 
mitted inheritance of intelligent men. Influenced by the 
thoughts which this universe inspires, well may we exclaim 
in David's spirit, if not in David's words: " When I consider 
the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon, and the 
stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man that thou 
shouldst be mindful of him, or the son of man that thou 
shouldst so regard him?" 
If you ask me who is to limit the outgoings of Almighty 
power, iny answer is, Not I. If you should urge that if 
the Builder and Maker of this universe chose to stop the 
rotation of the earth, or to take the form of a burning 
bush, there is nothing to prevent Him from doing so, I am 
not prepared to contradict you. I neither agree with you 
nor differ from you, for it is a subject of which I know 
nothing. But I observe that in such questions regarding 
Almighty power, your inquiries relate, not to that power 
as it is actually displayed in the universe, but to the power 
of your own imagination. Your question is, not has the 
Omnipotent done so and so? or is it in the least degree 
likely that the Omnipotent should do so and so? but, is 
my imagination competent to picture a Being able and 
willing to do so and so? I am not prepared to deny your 
