Nature and the Supernatural, 67 



attestation in their favor, and some little, if anj ; the latter chiefly 

 showing a predisposition on the part of many or all to accept the 

 truth of such narratives, which predisposition is itself a psycholog- 

 ical fact and demands investigation. But all these narratives have 

 the common ground that they are referable to no well established 

 rules of the phenomenal world which surrounds us, and some of 

 them are so different from ordinary experience as to excite our 

 wonder and tax our powers of belief in the highest degree, even 

 if they are not at once dismissed as unworthy of a rational man's 

 attention. 



Some of these facts, so called, are denominated " miracles," and 

 are viewed with reference to moral purposes and treated as evi- 

 dences of a Divine revelation or of some moral truth. But the 

 events recorded have their scientific relations, because phenomena 

 of nature are said to have been presented to human senses ; and 

 they have their philosophical relations, because the asserted facts, 

 whether true or mere inventions of fancy, call for rational expla- 

 nation. Kow my proposition is, that neither science nor philos- 

 ophy give any antecedent reasons, any a priori ground, for 

 rejecting facts of this nature. The question is simply one of their 

 historical evidence, and must be referred to that bar for judgment. 

 When criticism has sifted the evidence and given its verdict, if 

 that verdict be favorable, science may examine the facts so far as 

 the experience of others can be examined ; science, if the antece- 

 dents can he repeated, may verify the results (if the antecedents do 

 not admit of repetition the results cannot be verified); and phi- 

 losophy will try to explain the facts. If the testimony is rejected 

 as insufficient, there will be no case to come before this court, but 

 the claimant will not have been pre-judged. 



And furthermore, that the historical facts should be reconcil- 

 able with philosophy and science, it will not be necessary that my 

 view of the case be demonstrated to be correct. If only it be a 

 possible one, then also the reconciliation will be possible, and my 

 end will be attained. 



Let me repeat then, more fully, what I wish to exclude from 

 our discussion : (1) the credibility of the asserted facts ; (2) their 

 value, if true, as evidences of any moral or religious truth ; 



