THE QUESTION RESTATED 



ruled out; and will remain ruled out. So with 

 what is called " spiritualism," or the belief in the 

 physical intervention of the souls of the dead in 

 human affairs. Men of science decline to waste 

 their time in arguing against it, because they 

 know that the only way in which to destroy it is 

 to educate people in science. " Spiritualism " is 

 simply one of the weeds that spring up in minds 

 uncultivated by science. There is little use in 

 merely pulling up one form of the superstition 

 by the roots, for another form, equally noxious, 

 is sure to take root : the only way of ensuring 

 the destruction of the pests is to sow the seeds 

 of scientific truth. When, therefore, we are 

 gravely told what persons of undoubted veracity 

 have seen, we are affected about as much as if a 

 friend should come in and assure us, upon his 

 honour as a gentleman, that heat is not a mode 

 of motion. The case is the same with the belief 

 in miracles, or the physical intervention of the 

 Deity in human affairs. To the theologian such 

 intervention is a priori so probable that he needs 

 but slight historic testimony to make him believe 

 in it. To the scientific thinker it is a priori so 

 improbable that no amount of historic testi- 

 mony, such as can be produced, suffices to make 

 him entertain the hypothesis for an instant. 

 Hence it is that such critics as Strauss and Re- 

 nan, to the great disgust of theologians, always 

 assume, prior to argument, that miraculous nar- 



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