&6 PROF. H. LANGHORNE ORCHARD, M.A., B.SC., ON 
cation, and miracles are classifiable*; (4) Science aims at 
explanation, and miracles may explain what nothing else can 
explain; science sets herself to take account not of some facts 
only, but of all; she shirks no part of this task, be the subject 
radium, hypnotism, miracles, or aught else. She oecupies her- 
self not with the usual only, but also with the unusual. 
The aversion from miracles which is cherished by some 
scientists does not rest upon a scientific basis. It is accounted 
for by two considerations—the one negative in character, the 
other positive—(1) Unwillingness to admit that something can 
take place in nature which is not subject to the laws of nature, 
and is refractory from scientific formule; (2) Desire to test 
every article of faith by experimental methods. 
The first objection is a natural prejudice, but, when opposed 
to truth, is unworthy of a scientific mind; the second, when 
applied to miracles, is absurd, since excluded by the nature of 
the case. That belief in the fact of miracles is thoroughly 
compatible with the true scientific temper may be now stated as 
a truism. It is illustrated in such leaders as Newton, Faraday, 
Murchison, Sedgwick, Dawson, Carruthers, Turner, Stokes, 
Kelvin. The mission of Science is investigation, her perpetual 
watchword :—Examine and Report. 
How is this to be done? is a question which leads us to look 
at the nature of scientific evidence. Briefly, scientific evidence 
may be described as—(1) Evidence of observation; (2) Evidence 
of testimony: (5) Evidence of inference. Examples of these 
three kinds of evidence are continually coming before us. 
Practical instances of mechanical principles, of chemical re- 
actions and combinations, of biological processes, and of the 
behaviour of strange bodies such as radium, are believed by 
many of us from the evidence of our personal observation, by 
many more from the evidence of testimony ; we may not have 
seen the phenomenon, but some one else has, and we believe 
that he has, and we substitute his observation for our owa, 
regarding it as equally valid. A great many things are 
* Aquinas (Summa contra Gentiles) arranges thus :—“ Miracles of the 
highest rank are those in which something is done by God that nature 
can never do. Miracles of the second rank are those in which God does 
something that nature can do, but not in that sequence and connection. 
A miracle of the third rank is something done by God which is usually 
done by the operation of nature, but is done in this case without the 
working of natural principles.” See also a classification (under seven 
heads) of miraculous phenomena connected with the Mission of Christ, 
by Canon Girdlestone (“The Scriptural Idea of Miracles”). 
