16 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



corn was ground, after which the wind ceased. Accord- 

 ing to the canon of the Bampton Lecturer, this, though 

 carrying a strong appearance of an immediate exertion of 

 Divine energy, lacks by a hair-breadth the quality of a 

 miracle. For the wind might have arisen, and might have 

 ceased, in the ordinary course of nature. Hence the oc- 

 currence did not "compel the inference of extraordinary 

 Divine agency." In like manner Mr. Mozley considers 

 that "the appearance of the cross to Ccnstantine was a 

 miracle, or a special, providence, according to what ac- 

 count of it we adopt. As only a meteoric appearance in 

 the shape of a cross it gave some token of preternatural 

 agency, but not full evidence." 



In the Catholic canton of Switzerland where I now 

 w^rite, and still more among the pious Tyrolese, the moun- 

 tains are dotted with shrines, containing offerings of all 

 kinds, in acknowledgment of special mercies — legs, [eet, 

 arms, and hands — of gold, silver, brass, and wood, accord- 

 ing as worldly possessions enabled the grateful heart to 

 express its indebtedness. Most of these offerings are made 

 to the Virgin Mary. They are recognitions of "special 

 providences," wrought through, the instrumentality ol; the 

 Mother of God. Mr. Mozley' s belief, that of the Meth- 

 odist chronicler, and that of the Tyrolese peasant, are sub- 

 stantially the same. Each of them assumes that nature, 

 instead of flowing ever onward in the uninterrupted 

 rhythm of cause and effect, is mediately ruled by the 

 free human will. As regards direct action upon natural 

 phenomena, man's wish and will, as expressed in prayer, 

 are confessedly powerless; but prayer is the trigger which 

 liberates the Divine power, and to this extent, if the will 

 be free, man, of course, commands nature. 



