MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 13 



in whicli the question of miracles is treated by Mr. Mozlej. 

 Previous to receiving this note, I had in part made the 

 acquaintance of the work through an able and elaborate 

 review of it in the "Times." The combined effect of the 

 letter and the review was to make the book the companion 

 of my summer tour in the Alps. There, during the wet 

 and snowy days which were only too prevalent in 1866, 

 and during the days of rest interpolated between days of 

 toil, I made myself more thoroughly conversant with Mr. 

 Mozley's volume. I found it clear and strong — an intel- 

 lectual tonic, as bracing and pleasant to my mind as the 

 keen air of the mountains was to my body. From time 

 to time I jotted down thoughts regarding it, intending 

 afterward to work them up into a coherent whole. Other 

 duties, however, interfered with the complete carrying 

 out of this intention, and what I wrote last summer I now 

 publish, not hoping to be able, within any reasonable time, 

 to render my defence of scientific method more complete. 



Mr. Mozley refers at the outset of his task to the move- 

 ment against miracles which of late years has taken place, 

 and which determined his choice of a subject. He acquits 

 modern science of having had any great share in the pro- 

 duction of this movement. The objection against miracles, 

 lie says, does not arise from any minute knowledge of the 

 laws of nature, but simply because they are opposed to 

 that plain and obvious order of nature which everybody 

 sees. The present movement is, he thinks, to be ascribed 

 to the greater earnestness and penetration of the present 

 age. Formerly miracles were accepted without question, 

 because without reflection; but the exercise of the "his- 

 toric imagination'* is a characteristic of oar own time. 

 Men are now accustomed to place before themselves vivid 



