II PSEUDO-SCIENTIFIC REALISM 81 



the rules of action of a little bit of the universe ; 

 we call these rules " laws of nature," not because 

 anybody knows whether they bind nature or not, 

 but because we find it is obligatory on us to take 

 them into account, both as actors under nature, 

 and as interpreters of nature. We have any 

 quantity of genuine miracles of our own, and if 

 you will furnish us with as good evidence of your 

 miracles as we have of ours, we shall be quite 

 happy to accept them and to amend our expression 

 of the laws of nature in accordance with the new 

 facts. 



As to the particular cases adduced, we are so 

 perfectly fair-minded as to be willing to help your 

 case as far as we can. You are quite mistaken in 

 supposing that anybody who is acquainted with the 

 possibilities of physical science will undertake 

 categorically to deny that water may be turned 

 into wine. Many very competent judges are 

 already inclined to think that the bodies, which we 

 have hitherto called elementary, are really com- 

 posite arrangements of the particles of a uniform 

 primitive matter. Supposing that view to be 

 correct, there would be no more theoretical diffi- 

 culty about turning water into alcohol, ethereal 

 and colouring matters, than there is, at this pres- 

 ent moment, any practical difficulty in working 

 other such miracles ; as when we turn sugar into 

 alcohol, carbonic acid, glycerine, and succinic acid ; 

 or transmute gas-refuse into perfumes rarer than 



