MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES. 13 



Did the existence of this belief depend solely upon 

 the material benefits derived from it, it could not, in 

 my opinion, last a decade. As a purely objective fact, 

 we should soon see that the distribution of natural 

 phenomena is unaffected by the merits or the demerits 

 of men; that the law of gravitation crushes the simple 

 worshippers of Ottery St. Mary, while singing their 

 hymns, just as surely as if they were engaged in a mid- 

 night brawl. The hold of this belief upon the human 

 mind is not due to outward verification, but to the 

 inner warmth, force, and elevation with which it is 

 commonly associated. It is plain, however, that these 

 feelings may exist under the most various forms. They 

 are not limited to Church of England Protestantism 

 they are not even limited to Christianity. Though 

 less refined, they are certainly not less strong in the 

 heart of the Methodist and the Tyrolese peasant than 

 in the heart of Mr. Mozley. Indeed, those feelings be- 

 long to the primal powers of man's nature. A ' scep- 

 tic ' may have them. They find vent in the battle-cry 

 of the Moslem. They take hue and form in the hunt- 

 ing-grounds of the lied Indian; and raise all of them, 

 as they raise the Christian, upon a wave of victory, 

 above the terrors of the grave. 



The character, then, of a miracle, as distinguished 

 from a special providence, is that the former furnishes 

 proof, while in the case of the latter we have only sur- 

 mise. Dissolve the element of doubt and the alleged 

 fact passes from one class of the supernatural into 

 the other. In other words, if a special providence 

 could be proved to be a special providence, it would 

 cease to be a special providence and become a miracle. 

 There is not the least cloudiness about Mr. Mozley's 

 moaning here. A special providence is a doubtful 

 miracle. Why, then, not call it so? The term em- 



