MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 27 



instinct — ^is to operate as a practical basis for the affairs 

 of life and the carrying on of human society.*' To sum 

 up, the belief in the order of nature is general, but it is 

 **an unintelligent impulse, of which we can give no 

 rational account." It is inserted into our constitution 

 solely to induce us to till our fields, to raise our winter 

 fuel, and thus to meet the future on the perfectly gratui- 

 tous supposition that it will be like the past. 



"Thus, step by step," says Mr. Mozley, with the em- 

 phasis of a man who feels his position to be a strong one, 

 **has philosophy loosened the connection of the order of 

 nature with the ground of reason, befriending in exact 

 proportion as it has done this the principle of miracles." 

 For **this belief not having itself a foundation in reason, 

 the ground is gone upon which it coald be maintained that 

 miracles, as opposed to the order of nature, are opposed 

 to reason." When we regard this belief in connection 

 with science, **in which connection it receives a more im- 

 posing name, and is called the inductive principle," the 

 result is the same. "The inductive principle is only this 

 unreasoning impulse applied to a scientifically ascertained 

 fact. . . . Science has led up to the fact; but there it 

 stops, and for converting this fact into a law, a totally 

 unscientific principle comes into play, the same as that 

 which generalizes the commonest observation of nature." 



The eloquent pleader of the cause of miracles passes 

 over without a word the results of scientific investigation, 

 as proving anything rational regarding the principles or 

 method by which such results have been achieved. Here, 

 as elsewhere, he declines the test, "By their fruits shall 

 ye know them." Perhaps our best way of proceeding will 

 be to give one or two examples of the mode in which men 



