ADDITIONAL REMARKS ON MIRACLES. 



AMONG the scraps of manuscript, written at the time 

 when Mr. Mozley's work occupied my attention, I find 

 the following reflections: 



With regard to the influence of modern science 

 which Mr. Mozley rates so low, one obvious effect of it 

 is to enhance the magnitude of many of the recorded 

 miracles, and to increase proportionably the difficulties 

 of belief. The ancients knew but little of the vastness 

 of the universe. The Eev. Mr. Kirkman, for example, 

 has shown what inadequate notions the Jews enter- 

 tained regarding the ' firmament of heaven; ' and Sir 

 George Airy refers to the case of the Greek philosopher 

 who was persecuted for hazarding the assertion, then 

 deemed monstrous, that the sun might be as large as 

 the whole country of Greece. The concerns of a uni- 

 verse, regarded from this point of view, were much 

 more commensurate with man and his concerns than 

 those of the universe which science now reveals to us; 

 and hence that to suit man's purposes, or that in com- 

 pliance with his prayers, changes should occur in the 

 order of the universe, was more easy of belief in the 

 ancient world than it can be now. In the very magni- 

 tude which it assigns to natural phenomena, science 

 has augmented the distance between them and man, 

 and increased the popular belief in their orderly pro- 

 gression. 



As a natural consequence the demand for evidence 

 is more exacting than it used to be, whenever it is 

 affirmed that the order of nature has been disturbed. 

 Let us take as an illustration the miracle by which the 

 victory of Joshua over the Amorites was rendered com- 



