XI PECULIAR CONTROVERSIAL METHODS 411 



illustration of this position I wrote a special essay 

 about the miracles reported by Eginhard. l 



In truth, one need go no further than Mr. 

 Gladstone's sixth proposition to be convinced that 

 contemporary testimony, even of well-known and 

 distinguished persons, may be but a very frail reed 

 for the support of the historian, when theological 

 prepossession blinds the witness. 2 



PROP. 7. And he treats the entire question, in the 

 narrowed form in which it arises upon secular testi- 

 mony, as if it were capable of a solution so clear and 



1 " The Value of Witness to the Miraculous." Nineteenth 

 Century, March 1889. 



2 I cannot ask the Editor of this Review to reprint pages of 

 an old article, but the following passages sufficiently illustrate 

 the extent and the character of the discrepancy between the 

 facts of the case and Mr. Gladstone's account of them : 



"Now, in the Gadarene affair, I do not think I am 

 unreasonably sceptical if I say that the existence of demons who 

 can be transferred from a man to a pig does thus contravene 

 probability. Let me be perfectly candid. I admit I have no d 

 priori objection to offer. ... I declare, as plainly as I can, 

 that I am unable to show cause why these transferable devils 

 should not exist." . . . ("Agnosticism," Nineteenth Century. 

 1889, p. 177). 



" What then do we know about the originator, or originators, 

 of this groundwork of that threefold tradition which all three 

 witnesses (in Paley's phrase) agree upon that we should allow 

 their mere statements to outweigh the counter arguments of 

 humanity, of common sense, of exact science, and to imperil 

 the respect which all would be glad to be able to render to their 

 Master?" (ibid. p. 175). 



1 then go on through a couple of pages to discuss the value of 

 the evidence of the synoptics on critical and historical grounds. 

 Mr. Gladstone cites the essay from which these passages are 

 taken, whence I suppose he has read it ; though it may be that 

 he shares the impatience of Cardinal Manning where my writings 

 are concerned. Such impatience will account for, though it will 

 not excuse, his sixth proposition. 



