54 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



within, which needed no prodigy to commend it to the rev- 

 erence even of his foes. 



As regards the function of miracles in the founding of a 

 religion, Mr. Mozley institutes a comparison between the 

 religion of Christ and that of Mahomet, and he derides the 

 latter as " irrational " because it does not profess to adduce 

 miracles in proof of its supernatural origin. But the re- 

 ligion of Mahomet, notwithstanding this drawback, has 

 thriven in the world, and at one time it held sway over 

 larger populations than Christianity itself. The spread and 

 influence of Christianity are, however, brought forward by 

 Mr. Mozley as " a permanent, enormous, and incalculable 

 practical result " of Christian miracles ; and he actually 

 makes use of this result to strengthen his plea for the mirac- 

 ulous. His logical warrant for this proceeding is not clear. 

 It is the method of science, when a phenomenon presents 

 itself, to the production of which several elements may con- 

 tribute, to exclude them one by one, so as to arrive at 

 length at the truly effective cause. Heat, for example, is 

 associated with a phenomenon ; we exclude heat, but the 

 phenomenon remains : hence, heat is not its cause. Mag- 

 netism is associated with a phenomenon ; we exclude mag- 

 netism, but the phenomenon remains : hence, magnetism is 

 not its cause. Thus, also, when we seek the cause of the 

 diffusion of a religion — whether it be due to miracles or to 

 the spiritual force of its founders — we exclude the miracles, 

 and, finding the result unchanged, we infer that miracles 

 are not the effective cause. This important experiment 

 Mahometanism has made for us. It has lived and spread 

 without miracles ; and to assert, in the face of this, that 

 Christianity has spread because of miracles, is not more op- 

 posed to the spirit of science than to the common-sense of 

 mankind. 



The incongruity of inferring moral goodness from mirac- 

 ulous power has been dwelt upon above ; in another par- 



