MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES. 49 



icier, and that of the Tyrolese peasant, are substantially the 

 same. Each of them assumes that Nature, instead of flow- 

 ing ever onward in the uninterrupted rhythm of cause and 

 effect, is mediately ruled by the free human will. As re- 

 gards direct action upon natural phenomena, man's will is 

 confessedly powerless, but it is the trigger which, by its 

 own free action, liberates the Divine power. In this sense, 

 and to this extent, man, of course, commands Nature. 



Did the existence of this belief depend solely upon the 

 material benefits derived from it, it could not, in my opinion, 

 last a decade. As a purely objective fact we should soon 

 see that the distribution of natural phenomena is unaffected 

 by the merits or the demerits of man ; that the law of gravi- 

 tation crushes the simple worshippers of Ottery St. Mary, 

 while singing their hymns, just as surely as if they were 

 engaged in a midnight brawl. The hold of this belief upon 

 the human mind is not due to outward verification, but to 

 the inner warmth, force, and elevation with which it is com- 

 monly associated. It is plain, however, that these feelings 

 may exist under the most various forms. They are not 

 limited to Church of England Protestantism — they are not 

 even limited to Christianity. Though less refined, they are 

 certainly not less strong, in the heart of the Methodist and 

 the Tyrolese than in the heart of Mr. Mozley. Indeed, those 

 feelings belong to the primal powers of man's nature. A 

 " skeptic " may have them. They find vent in the battle- 

 cry of the Moslem. They take hue and form in the hunting- 

 grounds of the red Indian ; and raise all of them, as they 

 raise the Christian, upon a wave of victory, above the ter- 

 rors of the grave. 



The character, then, of a miracle, as distinguished from 

 a special providence, is that the former furnishes proof, 

 while in the case of the latter we have only surmise. Dis- 

 solve the element of doubt, and the alleged fact passes from 

 the one class of the preternatural into the other. In other 

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