MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCKS. 359 



all-important for the purposes of life, but solely practical, 

 and possesses no intellectual character. . . . The 

 proper function/' continues Mr. Mozley, " of the inductive 

 principle, the argument from experience, the belief in the 

 order of nature by whatever phrase we designate the 

 same 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 

 gratuitous 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 could be maintained 

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

 opposed to reason." When we regard this belief in con- 

 nection with science, " in which connection it receives a 

 more imposing name, and is called the inductive principle," 

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

 this unreasoning impulse applied to a scientifically ascer- 

 tained 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 

 of science apply the unintelligent impulse with which Mr. 

 Mozley credits them, and which shall show, by illustration, 

 the surreptitious method whereby they climb from the region 

 of facts to that of laws. 



Before the sixteenth century it was known that water 



