IV AN EPISCOPAL TRILOGY 135 



nature. On the contrary, as I have not the 

 honour to know the Bishop personally, my action 

 would be based upon my faith in that " law of 

 nature," or generalisation from experience, which 

 tells me that, as a rule, men who occupy the 

 Bishop's position are kindly and courteous. How 

 is the case altered if my request is preferred to 

 some imaginary superior being, or to the Most 

 High being, who, by the supposition, is able to 

 arrest disease, or make the sun stand still in the 

 heavens, just as easily as I can stop my watch, or 

 make it indicate any hour that pleases me ? 



I repeat that it is not upon any a priori con- 

 siderations that objections, either to the supposed 

 efficacy of prayer in modifying the course of events, 

 or to the supposed occurrence of miracles, can be 

 scientifically based. The real objection, and, to 

 my mind, the fatal objection, to both these sup- 

 positions, is the inadequacy of the evidence to 

 prove any given case of such occurrences which 

 has been adduced. It is a canon of common 

 sense, to say nothing of science, that the more 

 improbable a supposed occurrence, the more 

 cogent ought to be the evidence in its favour. I 

 have looked somewhat carefully into the subject, 

 and I am unable to find in the records of any 

 miraculous event evidence which even approxi- 

 mates to the fulfilment of this requirement. 



But, in the case of prayer, the Bishop points out 

 a most just and necessary distinction between its 



