MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES. 15 



toric conviction, is the aim. It is, moreover, because 

 the result, in the case under consideration, is deemed 

 desirable that the affections are called upon to back it. 

 If undesirable, they would, with equal right, be called 

 upon to act the other way. Even to the disciplined 

 scientific mind this would be a dangerous doctrine. A 

 favourite theory the desire to establish or avoid a 

 certain result can so warp the mind as to destroy its 

 powers of estimating facts. I have known men to work 

 for years under a fascination of this kind, unable to 

 extricate themselves from its fatal influence. They had 

 certain data, but not, as it happened, enough. By a 

 process exactly analogous to that invoked by Mr. 

 Mozley, they supplemented the data, and went wrong. 

 From that hour their intellects were so blinded to the 

 perception of adverse phenomena that they never 

 reached truth. If, then, to the disciplined scientific 

 mind, this incongruous mixture of proof and trust be 

 fraught with danger, what must it be to the indiscrim- 

 inate audience which Mr. Mozley addresses? In call- 

 ing upon this agency he acts the part of Frankenstein. 

 It is a monster thus evoked that we see stalking abroad, 

 in the degrading spiritualistic phenomena of the pres- 

 ent day. Again, I say, where the aim is to elevate the 

 mind, to quicken the moral sense, to kindle the fire of 

 religion in the soul, let the affections by all means be 

 invoked; but they must not be permitted to colour 

 our reports, or to influence our acceptance of reports of 

 occurrences in external nature. Testimony as to nat- 

 ural facts is worthless when wrapped in this atmo- 

 sphere of the affections; the most earnest subjective 

 truth being thus rendered perfectly compatible with 

 the most astounding objective error. 



There are questions in judging of which the affec- 

 tions or sympathies are often our best guides, the 



