36 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



plete. In this case the sun is reported to have stood stil 

 for ' about a whole day ' upon Gibeon, and the moon 

 in the valley of Ajalon. An Englishman of average 

 education at the present day would naturally demand 

 greater amount of evidence to prove that this occurrence 

 took place, than would have satisfied an Israelite in the 

 age succeeding that of Joshua. For to the one, the mira- 

 cle probably consisted in the stoppage of a fiery ball less 

 than a yard in diameter, while to the other it would be 

 the stoppage of an orb fourteen hundred thousand times 

 the earth in size. And even accepting the interpreta- 

 tion that Joshua dealt with what was apparent merely 

 but that what really occurred was the suspension of the 

 earth's rotation. I think the right to exercise a greater 

 reserve in accepting the miracle, and to demand stronger 

 evidence in support of it than that which would have 

 satisfied an ancient Israelite, will still be conceded to a 

 man of science. 



There is a scientific as well as an historic imagi- 

 nation ; and when, by the exercise of the former, the 

 stoppage of the earth's rotation is clearly realised, the 

 event assumes proportions so vast, in comparison with 

 the result to be obtained by it, that belief reels under 

 the reflection. The energy here involved is equal to that 

 of six trillions of horses working for the whole of the 

 time employed by Joshua m the destruction of his toes. 

 The amount of power thus expended would be sufficient 

 to supply every individual of an army a thousand times 

 the strength of that of Joshua, with a thousand times 

 the fighting power of each of Joshua's soldiers, not for 

 the few hours necessary to the extinction of a handful 

 of Amorites, but for millions of years. All this 

 wonder is silently passed over by the sacred historian, 

 manifestly because he knew nothing about it. Whether, 

 therefore, we consider the miracle as purely evidential, 



