330 AGNOSTICISM AND CHRISTIANITY ix 



not cared to expend any space on the question. 

 It will be admitted, I suppose, that the authors of 

 the works attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and 

 John, whoever they may be, are personages whose 

 capacity and judgment in the narration of ordin- 

 ary events are not quite so well certified as those 

 of Eginhard ; and we have seen what the value of 

 Eginhard's evidence is when the miraculous is in 

 question. 



I have been careful to explain that the argu- 

 ments which I have used in the course of this 

 discussion are not new ; that they are historical 

 and have nothing to do with what is commonly 

 called science ; and that they are all, to the best 

 of my belief, to be found in the works of theologi- 

 ans of repute. 



The position which I have taken up, that the 

 evidence in favour of such miracles as those 

 recorded by Eginhard, and consequently of 

 mediaeval demonology, is quite as good as that in 

 favour of such miracles as the Gadarene, and con- 

 sequently of Nazarene demonology, is none of iny 

 discovery. Its strength was, wittingly or un- 

 wittingly, suggested, a century and a half ago, by 

 a theological scholar of eminence ; and it has been, 

 if not exactly occupied, yet so fortified with bas- 

 tions and redoubts by a living ecclesiastical 

 Vauban, that, in my judgment, it has been ren- 

 dered impregnable. In the early part of the last 



