MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 



nature, putting in the place of law the 

 figments of superstitious dread. For 

 thousands of years witchcraft, and magic, 

 and miracles, and special providences, 

 and Mr. Mozley's " distinctive reason of 

 man," had the world to themselves. 

 They made worse than nothing of it 

 worse, I say, because they let and 

 hindered those who might have made 

 something of it. Hence it is that during 

 a single lifetime of this era of " unintel- 

 ligent impulse " the progress in know- 

 ledge is all but infinite, as compared with 

 that of the ages which preceded ours. 



The believers in magic and miracles 

 of a couple of centuries ago had all the 

 strength of Mr. Mozley's present logic 

 on their side. They had done for them- 

 selves what he rejoices in having so 

 effectually done for us cleared the 

 ground of the belief in the order of 

 nature, and declared magic, miracles, 

 and witchcraft to be matters for "ordi- 

 nary evidence " to decide. ' ' The principle 

 of miracles " thus " befriended " had 

 free scope, and we know the result. 

 Lacking that rock-barrier of natural 

 knowledge which we now possess, keen 

 jurists and cultivated men were hurried 

 on to deeds the bare recital of which 

 makes the blood run cold. Skilled in 

 all the rules of human evidence, and 

 versed in all the arts of cross-examination, 

 these men, nevertheless, went systemati- 

 cally astray, and committed the deadliest 

 wrongs against humanity. And why? 

 Because they could not put Nature into 

 the witness-box, and question her of 

 her voiceless " testimony " they knew 

 nothing. In all cases between man and 

 man their judgment was to be relied 

 on ; but in all cases between man and 

 nature they were blind leaders of the 

 blind. 1 



1 " In 1664 two women were hung in Suffolk, 

 under a sentence of Sir Matthew Hale, who 

 took the opportunity of declaring that the 

 reality of witchcraft was unquestionable ; ' for 

 first, the Scriptures had affirmed so much ; and 

 secondly, the wisdom of all nations had pro- 

 vided laws against such persons, which is an 

 argument of their confidence of such a crime.' 

 Sir Thomas Browne, who was a great physician 



Mr. Mozley concedes that it would be 

 no great result if miracles were only 

 accepted by the ignorant and super- 

 stitious, "because it is easy to satisfy 

 those who do not inquire." But he 

 does consider it " a great result " that 

 they have been accepted by the edu- 

 cated. In what sense educated ? Like 

 those statesmen, jurists, and Church 

 dignitaries whose education was unable 

 to save them from the frightful errors 

 glanced at above? Not even in this 

 sense ; for the great mass of Mr. Mozley's 

 educated people had no legal training, 

 and must have been absolutely defence- 

 less against delusions which could set 

 even that training at naught. Like nine- 

 tenths of our clergy at the present day, 

 they were versed in the literature of 

 Greece, Rome, and Judea; but as 

 regards a knowledge of nature, which is 

 here the one thing needful, they were 

 " noble savages," and nothing more. In 

 the case of miracles, then, it behoves us 

 to understand the weight of the negative 

 before we assign a value to the positive; 

 to comprehend the depositions of nature 

 before we attempt to measure, with them, 

 the evidence of men. We have only to 

 open our eyes to see what honest and 

 even intellectual men and women are 

 capable of, as to judging evidence, in 

 this nineteenth century of the Chris- 

 tian era, and in latitude fifty-two 

 degrees north. The experience thus 

 gained ought, I imagine, to influence 

 our opinion regarding the testimony of 

 people inhabiting a sunnier clime, with 

 a richer imagination and without a 

 particle of that restraint which the dis- 

 coveries of physical science have imposed 

 upon mankind. 



Having thus submitted Mr. Mozley's 

 views to the examination which they chal- 

 lenged at the hands of a student of nature, 

 I am unwilling to quit his book without 

 expressing my admiration of his genius 



as well as a great writer, was called as a witness, 

 and swore ' that he was clearly of opinion that 

 the persons were bewitched.' " Lecky's History 

 of Rationalism, vol. i., p. 120. 



