252 THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS 



OWL words, when the New Testament miracles were, it is 

 alleged, in the act of being wrought, ' all the common opera- 

 tions of the physical world were going on in their usual sim- 

 plicity, obeying that order which we still see governing thenL' 

 Such is the portion of your statement already made ; what 

 next V " It is surely very unlikely," replies the auxiliary, 

 " that in such a complex mass of phenomena there should 

 have been two totally distinct modes of the exercise of the 

 Divine power, — the mode by miracle and the mode by law." 

 " Unlikely !" rejoins the philosopher ; " on what grounds ?" 

 " O, just unlikely,^' says the auxiliary ; — " unlikely that God 

 should be at once operating on matter through the agency of 

 natural laws, of which mxin knows much, and through the 

 agency of miraculous acts, of the nature of which man knows 

 nothing. But I have not thought out the subject any farther : 

 you have, in the statement already made, my entire argument^ 

 " Ay, I see," the author of the " Essay on Miracles" would 

 probably have remarked ; "you deem it unlikely that Deity 

 should not only work in part, as he has always done, by means 

 of which men, — clever fellows like you and me, — think they 

 know a great deal, but that he should also work in part, as 

 he has always done, by means of which they know nothing 

 at all. Admirably reasoned out ! You are, I make no 

 doubt, a sound, zealous unbeliever in your private capacity, 

 and your argument may have great weight with your own 

 mind, and be, in consequence, worthy of encouragement in a 

 small way ; but allow me to suggest that, for the sake of the 

 general cause, it should be kept out of reach of the enemy. 

 There are in the Churches militant on both sides of the Tweed 

 shrewd combatants, who have nearly as much wit as our- 

 selves." I think I understand the reference of the author 

 of the " Vestiges" to the dream " of a special action of Deity 

 in every change of wind, and the results of each season." 

 Taken with what immediately goes before, it means something 



