162 HUME vn 



wishes to keep well within the limits of that which 

 he has a right to assert will affirm that it is impos- 

 sible that the sun and moon should ever have 

 been made to appear to stand still in the valley of 

 Ajalon; or that the walls of a city should have 

 fallen down at a trumpet blast; or that water was 

 turned into wine; because such events are contrary 

 to uniform experience and violate laws of nature. 

 For aught he can prove to the contrary, such events 

 may appear in the order of nature to-morrow. 

 But common sense and common honesty alike 

 oblige him to demand from those who would have 

 him believe in the actual occurrence of such -events, 

 evidence of a cogency proportionate to their 

 departure from probability; evidence at least as 

 strong as that, which the man who says he has 

 seen a centaur is bound to produce, unless he is 

 content to be thought either more than credulous 

 or less than honest. 



But are there any miracles on record, the 

 evidence for which fulfils the plain and simple 

 requirements alike of elementary logic and of 

 elementary morality? 



Hume answers this question without the small- 

 est hesitation, and with all the authority of a his- 

 torical specialist: 



" There is not to be found, in all history, any miracle 

 attested by a sufficient number of men, of such unques- 

 tioned goodness, education, and learning, as to secure us 

 against all delusion in themselves ; of such undoubted in- 



