LECTURES AND ESSA YS 



and my respect for his character. Though 

 barely known to him personally, his 

 recent death affected me as that of a 

 friend. With regard to the style of his 

 book, I heartily subscribe to the descrip- 

 tion with which the Times winds up its 

 able and appreciative review : " It is 

 marked throughout with the most serious 

 and earnest conviction, but is without a 

 single word from first to last of asperity 

 or insinuation against opponents ; and 

 this not from any deficiency of feeling as 

 to the importance of the issue, but from 

 a deliberate and resolutely maintained 

 self-control, and from an over-ruling, 

 ever-present sense of the duty, on themes 

 like these, of a more than judicial calm- 



ADDITIONAL REMARKS ON 

 MIRACLES 



AMONG the scraps of manuscripts, 

 written at the time when Mr. Mozley's 

 work occupied my attention, I find' the 

 following reflections : 



With regard to the influence of modern 

 science, which Mr. Mozley rates so low, 

 one obvious effect of it is to enhance the 

 magnitude of many of the recorded 

 miracles, and to increase proportionably 

 the difficulties of belief. The ancients 

 knew but little of the vastness of the 

 universe. The Rev. Mr. Kirkman, for 

 example, has shown what inadequate 

 notions the Jews entertained regarding 

 the " firmament of heaven "; and Sir 

 George Airy refers to the case of a Greek 

 philosopher who was persecuted for 

 hazarding the assertion, then deemed 

 monstrous, that the sun might be as large 

 as the whole country of Greece. The 

 concerns of a universe, regarded from 

 this point of view, were much more com- 

 mensurate with man and his concerns 

 than those of the universe which science 

 now reveals to us ; and hence that to 

 suit man's purposes, or that in compli- 

 ance with his prayers, changes should 

 occur in the order of the universe, was 

 more easy of belief in the ancient world 



than it can be now. In the very magni- 

 tude which it assigns to natural pheno- 

 mena, science has augmented the dis- 

 tance between them and man, and in- 

 creased the popular belief in their orderly 

 progression. 



As a natural consequence, the demand 

 I for evidence is more exacting than it 

 used to be whenever it is affirmed that 

 the order of nature has been disturbed. 

 Let us take as an illustration the miracle 

 by which the victory of Joshua over the 

 Amorites was rendered complete. In 

 this case the sun is reported to have 

 stood still for " about a whole day " upon 

 Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of 

 Ajalon. An Englishman of average edu- 

 cation at the present day would naturally 

 demand a greater amount of evidence to 

 prove that this occurrence took place 

 than would have satisfied an Israelite in 

 the age succeeding that of Joshua. For 

 to the one the miracle probably con- 

 sisted in the stoppage of a fiery ball less 

 than a yard in diameter, while to the other 

 it would be the stoppage of an orb fourteen 

 hundred thousand times the earth in size. 

 And even accepting the interpretation 

 that Joshua dealt with what was apparent 

 merely, but that what really occurred was 

 the suspension of the earth's rotation, I 

 think the right to exercise a greater 

 reserve in accepting the miracle, and to 

 demand stronger evidence in support ot 

 it than that which would have satisfied 

 an ancient Israelite, will still be con- 

 ceded to a man of science. 



There is a scientific as well as an 

 historic imagination ; and when, by the 

 exercise of the former, the stoppage of 

 the earth's rotation is clearly realised, 

 the event assumes proportions so vast, in 

 comparison with the result to be obtained 

 by it, that belief reels under the reflec- 

 tion. The energy here involved is equal 

 to that of six trillions of horses working 

 for the whole of the time employed by 

 Joshua in the destruction of his foes. 

 The amount of power thus expended 

 would be sufficient to supply every indi- 

 vidual of an army a thousand times the 

 strength of that of Joshua, with a thousand 



