16 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



estimation of moral goodness being one of these. But 

 at this precise point, where they are really of use, Mr. 

 Mozley excludes the affections and demands a miracle 

 as a certificate of character. He will not accept any 

 other evidence of the perfect goodness of Christ. ' No 

 outward life and conduct/ he says, ' however irre- 

 proachable, could prove His perfect sinlessness, because 

 goodness depends upon the inward motive, and the 

 perfection of the inward motive is not proved by the 

 outward act.' But surely the miracle is an outward 

 act, and to pass from it to the inner motive imposes a 

 greater strain upon logic than that involved in our 

 ordinary methods of estimating men. There is, at 

 least, moral congruity between the outward goodness 

 and the inner life, but there is no such congruity be- 

 tween the miracle and the life within. The test of 

 moral goodness laid down by Mr. Mozley is not the test 

 of John, who says, ' He that doeth righteousness is 

 righteous; ' nor is it the test of Jesus: ' By their 

 fruits ye shall know them: do men gather grapes of 

 thorns, or figs of thistles? ' But it is the test of an- 

 other: ' If thou be the Son of God, command that 

 these stones be made bread.' For my own part, I 

 prefer the attitude of Fichte to that of Mr. Mozley. 

 'The Jesus of John,' says this noble and mighty 

 thinker, 'knows no other God than the True God, in 

 whom we all are, and live, and may be blessed, and out 

 of whom there is only Death and Nothingness. And,' 

 continues Fichte, ' he appeals, and rightly appeals, in 

 support of this truth, not to reasoning, but to the in- 

 ward practical sense of truth in man, not even knowing 

 any other proof than this inward testimony, ' If any 

 man will do the will of Him who sent Me, he shall 

 know of the doctrine whether it be of God." ' 



Accepting Mr. Mozley's test, with which alone I am 



