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 proportion ably the difficulties 

 of belief. The ancients knew but little of the vastness 

 of the universe. The Rev. Mr. Kirk man, for example, 

 has shown what inadequate notions the Jews entertained 

 regarding the ' firmament of heaven ; ' and Sir George 

 Airy refers to the case of a 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 universe, regarded 

 from this point of view, were much more commensu- 

 rate 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 compliance 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 magnitude which it 

 assigns to natural phenomena, science has augmented 

 the distance between them and man, and increased 

 the popular belief in their orderly progression. 



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- 



