MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES. 15 



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 indiscriminate audience 

 which Mr. Mozley addresses ? In calling upon this 

 agency he acts the part of Frankenstein. It is a mon- 

 ster thus evoked that we see stalking abroad, in the 

 degrading spiritualistic phenomena of the present 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 natural facts is 

 worthless when wrapped in this atmosphere 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 

 estimation of moral goodness being one of these. But 



