52 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



point, where they are really of use, Mr. Mozley excludes 

 the affections, and demands a miracle as a certificate of 

 character. He will not accept any other evidence of the 

 perfect goodness of Christ. " No outward life or conduct," 

 he says, " however irreproachable, could prove His perfect 

 sinlessness, because goodness depends upon the inward 

 motive, and the perfection of the inward motive is not 

 proved by the outward act." But surely the miracle is an 

 outward act, and to pass from it to the inner motive im- 

 poses a greater strain upon logic than that involved in our 

 ordinary methods of estimating men. There is, at least, 

 moral congruity between the outward goodness and the 

 inner life, but there is no such congruity between the mira- 

 cle and the life within. The test of moral goodness laid 

 down by Mr. Mozley is not the test of John, who says, " He 

 that doeth righteousness is righteous ; " nor is it the test 

 of Jesus — " By their fruits ye shall know them ; do men 

 gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? " But it is the 

 test of another : " If thou be the Son of God, command that 

 these stones be made bread." For my own part, I prefer 

 the attitude of Fichte to that of Mr. Mozley. " The Jesus 

 of John," says this noble and mighty thinker, " knows no 

 other God than the True God, in whom we all are, and live, 

 and may be blessed, and out of whom there is only Death 

 and Nothingness. And he appeals, and rightly appeals, in 

 support of this truth, not to reasoning, but to the inward 

 practical sense of truth in man, not even knowing any other 

 proof than this inward testimony, ' If any man will do the 

 will of Him who sent me, he shall know of the doctrine 

 whether it be of God." ' 



Accepting Mr. Mozley's test, with which alone I am now 

 dealing, it is evident that, in the demonstration of moral 

 goodness, the quantity of the miraculous comes into play. 

 Had Christ, for example, limited Himself to the conversion 

 of water into wine, He would have fallen short of the per- 



