350 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



logical warrant for this proceeding is not clear. It is 

 the method of science, when a phenomenon presents itself, 

 toward the production of which several elements may 

 contribute, to exclude them one by one, so as to arrive 

 at length at the truly effective cause. Heat, for example, is 

 associated with a phenomenon; we exclude heat, but the 

 phenomenon remains: hence, heat is not its cause. Mag- 

 netism is associated with a phenomenon; we exclude mag- 

 netism, but the phenomenon remains: hence, magnetism 

 is not its cause. Thus, also, when we seek the cause of a 

 diffusion of a religion whether it be due to miracles, or 

 to the spiritual force of its founders we exclude the mir- 

 acles, and, rinding the result unchanged, we infer that 

 miracles are not the effective cause. This important ex- 

 periment Mohammedanism has made for us. It has lived 

 and spread without miracles; and to assert, in the face of 

 this, that Christianity has spread because of miracles, is, I 

 submit, opposed both to the spirit of science and the com- 

 mon sense of mankind. 



The incongruity of inferring moral goodness from mirac- 

 ulous power has been dwelt upon above; in another par- 

 ticular also the strain put by Mr. Mozley upon miracles is, 

 I think, more than they can bear. In consistency with his 

 principles, it is difficult to see how he is to draw from the 

 miracles of Christ any certain conclusion as to His Divine 

 nature^ He dwells very forcibly on what he calls " the 

 argument from experience," in the demolition of which he 

 takes obvious delight. He destroys the argument, and 

 repeats it, for the mere pleasure of again and again knock- 

 ing the breath out of it. Experience, he urges, can only 

 deal with the past; and the moment we attempt to project 

 experience a hair's breadth beyond the point it has at any 

 moment reached, we are condemned by reason. It appears 

 to me that when he infers from Christ's miracles a Divine 

 and altogether superhuman energy, Mr. Mozley places him- 

 self precisely under this condemnation. For what is his 

 logical ground for concluding that the miracles of the New 

 Testament illustrate Divine power? May they not be the 

 result of expanded human power? A miracle he defines $is 

 something impossible to man. But how does he know tluifc 

 the miracles of the New Testament are impossible to man? 

 Seek as he may, he has absolutely no reason to adduce sn\o 

 this that man has never hitherto accomplished such 



