MODERN MIRACLES. 195 



with the growth and development of anthropology and ethno- 

 psychology. Missionaries, tourists, government officials, and the 

 most eminent English, French, German, and Italian scientists, 

 who have witnessed these exhibitions in India and other Ori- 

 ental countries, all agree as to the genuineness of the phenomena, 

 although no one has yet been able to give a satisfactory explana- 

 tion of them. If we accept the argumentum ex consensu gentium 

 as valid, the evidence is overwhelming and the proof complete. 



Indeed, one need not go so far away in search of such mani- 

 festations. The so-called Choreutse (dancers) of the fourteenth 

 and fifteenth centuries, the Flagellants of a later period, and simi- 

 lar fanatical sects, are not to be considered in this connection, 

 since their object was to inflict pain upon themselves, the physical 

 suffering being regarded as a sacrament or efficient means of 

 grace. There is, however, quite a remarkable resemblance be- 

 tween the marvelous feats of Arabian and Indian fakirs and those 

 performed by Jansenist convulsionaries in the last century (1730- 

 1762) at the grave of their ascetic saint, Francis of Paris, in the 

 suburban church of St. Medardus, the genuineness of which is not 

 denied by their bitter enemies, the Jesuits, and is even admitted 

 by such scrutinizing skeptics as Hume and Diderot. These re- 

 ligious enthusiasts maltreated their bodies much in the same way 

 as the fakirs and with like impunity, and regarded such actions 

 as contributing to their spiritual growth and perfection. It was a 

 sort of homoeopathic treatment, the principle of similia similibus 

 applied to the cure of souls, whose infirmities were indicated by 

 bodily symptoms and required vigorous remedies. Thus, an op- 

 pression of the chest, which had a pathological significance in re- 

 lation to the spirit, pointed to the therapeutic necessity of beating 

 it with the greatest violence ; if the convulsionary had a sense of 

 burning heat, he exposed himself to the flames ; an acute and bor- 

 ing pain in the mouth, neck, eye, or any other organ required a 

 dagger to be thrust into the afflicted part, but, strangely enough, 

 no force could make the sharpest instrument enter the flesh or 

 inflict a wound. If we are to accept autoptic testimony, given by 

 shrewd observers, who would have been glad to expose any impos- 

 ture, these enthusiasts could eat the most injurious things, swal- 

 low poisons, and lie for hours in the fire, like salamanders, without 

 singeing a hair or having any smell of burning on their persons. 



Doubtless, as Charcot, Lombroso, Mendel, and other scientists 

 suggest, hypnotism may furnish a partial solution of this physio- 

 logical and psychological puzzle ; but hypnotism, although recog- 

 nized as a fact, still remains a mystery, and differs from a miracle 

 only in being attributed to natural instead of supernatural causes. 

 It is well known that, in obedience to hypnotic suggestion, persons 

 will eat the most unpalatable and even disgusting substances as 



