GROUNDS OF DISBELIEF. 191 



to these laws, or to some others coming near to them 

 in generality, that the word impossibility (at least 

 absolute impossibility) seems to be generally confined. 

 Violations of other laws, of special laws of causation 

 for instance, are said, by persons studious of accuracy 

 in expression, to be impossible in the circumstances of 

 the case ; or impossible unless some cause had existed 

 which did not exist in the particular case. Of no 

 assertion, not in contradiction to some of these very 

 general laws, will more than improbability be asserted 

 by any cautious person ; and improbability not of the 

 very highest degree, unless the time and place in 

 which the fact is said to have occurred, render it 

 almost certain that the anomaly, if real, could not 

 have been overlooked by other observers. Suspen- 

 sion of judgment is in all other cases the resource of 

 the judicious inquirer ; provided the testimony in 

 favour of the anomaly presents, when well sifted, no 

 suspicious circumstances. 



But the testimony is scarcely ever found to stand 

 that test, in cases in which the anomaly is not real. 

 In the instances upon record in which a great number 

 of witnesses,, of good reputation and scientific acquire- 

 ments, have testified to the truth of something which 

 has turned out untrue, there have almost always been 

 circumstances which., to a keen observer who had 

 taken due pains to sift the matter, would have ren- 

 dered the testimony untrustworthy. There have 

 generally been means of accounting for the impression 

 upon the senses or minds of the alleged percipients by 

 fallacious appearances ; or some epidemic delusion, 

 propagated by the contagious influence of popular 

 feeling, has been concerned in the case ; or some 

 strong interest has been implicated religious zeal, 

 party feeling, vanity, or at least the passion for the 



