2i8 NATURE AND MAN. 



Theology": — "In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot 

 " against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there : 

 "I might possibly answer that, for anything I knew to the con- 

 " trar}'-, it had lain there for ever ; nor would it perhaps be very 

 " easy to show the absurdity of this answer." Now, what is it 

 that determines our immediate rejection of a proposition, which, 

 as Paley says truly, cannot be easily refuted by any strict logical 

 process ? Perhaps neither the child nor the savage would have 

 anything to say against it ; yet no member of an educated com- 

 munity could entertain it for a moment. For what we call our 

 ordinary common sense pronounces its adverse decision in the 

 most distinct and explicit form, immediately that the proposition 

 is brought before its tribunal; its judgment being an acquired 

 intuition, which may be regarded as the general resultant of a 

 great aggregate of famihar experiences, embodied in each indi- 

 vidual's reason. 



But in a large proportion of cases, the matter is one which lies 

 outside the range of ordinary " common sense ; " some special 

 preparedness being required for the right appreciation of the in- 

 herent probability of the statement. One among my audience, 

 for example, who has no previous information on the subject, 

 happens to read the entertaining and (in certain aspects) very 

 suggestive "Autobiography of Robert Houdin the Conjuror," and 

 meets, near its conclusion, with the following passage : — 



" The furnace (of an iron-foundry) was opened, and a jet of 

 " molten metal, about the thickness of my arm, burst forth. 

 " Sparks flew in every direction, as if it were a firework perform- 

 "ance. After the lapse of a few minutes, my companion walked 

 "up to the furnace, and calmly began washing his hands in the 

 " metal, as if it had been lukewarm water. I walked forward in 

 " my turn ; I imitated my companion's movements ; I literally 

 " dabbled in the burning liquid ; I took a handful of the metal 

 " and threw it in the air, and it fell back in a fire-shower on the 

 " ground. The impression I felt in touching this molten iron can 

 " only be compared to what I should have experienced in handling 

 "hquid velvet, if I may so express myself" 



Any ordinary reader would be fully justified in treating this won- 

 derful narration as Houdin's account of some new kind of conjur- 



