32 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



Before these methods were adopted the unbridle 

 imagination roamed through nature, putting in tl 

 place of law the figments of superstitious dread. Fc 

 thousands of years witchcraft, and magic, and miracle 

 and special providences, and Mr. Mozley's ' distinct!) 

 reason of man,' had the world to themselves. The 

 made worse than nothing of it worse, I say, becaus 

 they let and hindered those who might have mad< 

 something of it. Hence it is, that during a single life 

 time of this era of ' unintelligent impulse,' the progre 

 in knowledge is all but infinite as compared with th; 

 of the ages which preceded ours. 



The believers in magic and miracles of a couple oi 

 centuries ago had all the strength of Mr. Mozley'g 

 present logic on their side. They had done for thei 

 selves what he rejoices in having so effectually done for 

 us cleared the ground of the belief in the order of 

 nature, and declared magic, miracles, and witchcraft to 

 be matters for ' ordinary evidence ' to decide. ' The 

 principle of miracles ' thus * befriended ' had free scope, | 

 and we know the result. Lacking that rock-barrier of 

 natural knowledge which we now possess, keen jurists 

 and cultivated men were hurried on to deeds, the bare j 

 recital of which makes the blood run cold. Skilled in 

 all the rules of human evidence, and versed in all the ! 

 arts of cross-examination, these men, nevertheless, went 

 systematically astray, and committed the deadliest 

 wrongs against humanity. And why ? Because they 

 could not put Nature into the witness-box, and question 

 her of her voiceless ' testimony ' they knew nothing. 

 In all cases between man and man, their judgment was 

 to be relied on; but in all cases between man and 

 nature, they were blind leaders of the blind. 1 



1 * In 1664 two women were hung in Suffolk, under a sentence 

 of Sir Matthew Hale, who took the opportunity of declaring that 



