Vi POSSIBILITIES AND IMPOSSIBILITIES 207 



occurrence. It is true that the position that 

 miracles are "impossible" cannot be sustained. 

 But I know of nothing which calls upon me 

 to qualify the grave verdict of Hume : " There 

 is not to be found, in all history, any 

 miracle attested by a sufficient number of men, 

 of such unquestioned goodness, education, and 

 learning as to secure us against all delusion in 

 themselves ; of such undoubted integrity as to 

 place them beyond all suspicion of any design to 

 deceive others; of such credit and reputation in 

 the eyes of mankind as to have a great deal 

 to lose in case of their being detected in any 

 falsehood ; and at the same time attesting facts, 

 performed in such a public manner, and in so 

 celebrated a part of the world, as to render the 

 detection unavoidable : all which circumstances 

 are requisite to give us a full assurance in the testi- 

 mony of men." l 



The preceding paper called forth the following criticism signed 

 " Agnosco," to which I append my reply : 



WHILE agreeing generally with Professor Huxley's remarks 

 respecting miracles, in " The Agnostic Annual for 1892," it has 

 seemed to me that one of his arguments at least requires quali- 

 fication. The Professor, in maintaining that so-called miraculous 

 events are possible, although the evidence adduced is not 

 sufficient to render them probable, refers to the possibility of 

 changing water into wine by molecular re -composition. He 

 tells us that, " if carbon can be got out of hydrogen or oxygen, 

 the conversion of water into wine comes within range of scientific 

 possibility." But in maintaining that miracles (so-called) have 



1 Hume, Inquiry, sec. x., part ii. 

 129 



