174 CHARLES BABBAGE. 



above ordinary stature; and, saving perhaps the acceptance of certain 

 rules of obedience to law, without which no one can wisely govern him- 

 self, played a part in the drama of life that will not be soon forgotten. 



It is proposed now to speak of Charles Babbage in the two characters 

 of an observer of Ms time and as a contributor to knowledge. In each, as 

 the most certain way to reach the end in view, we shall quote without 

 restriction or further acknowledgment from his own writings : 



"My engine," he said to some scientific friends after a friendly break- 

 fast, " will count the natural numbers as far as the millionth term. It 

 will then commence a new series, following a different law. This it sud- 

 denly abandons and calculates another series by another law. This 

 again is followed by another, and still another. It may go on through- 

 out all time. An observer, seeing a new law coming at certain periods, 

 and going out at others, might find in the mechanism a ];)arallel to the 

 laws of life. That all men die is the result of a vast induction of in- 

 stances. That one or more men at given times shall be restored to life, 

 may be as much a consequence of the law of existence appointed for 

 man at his creation, as the appearance and re-appearance of the isolated 

 cases of apparent exception in the arithmetical machine. Miracles, 

 therefore, may not be the breach of established laws, but the very 

 circumstances that indicate the existence of higher laws, which, at 

 appointed times produce the preintended results. 



" For example, the analytical engine might be so set that at definite 

 periods, knovfu only to its maker, a certain lever might become movable 

 during the calculations then making. The consequence of moving it 

 might be to cause the then existing law to be violated for one or more 

 times, after which the original law would resume its reign. Of course, 

 the maker of the calculating engine might confide this fact to the person 

 using it, who would thus be gifted with the i)Ower of prophecy if he 

 foretold the event, or of working a miracle at the proper time if he 

 withheld his knowledge from those around until the moment of its taking 

 place. Such is the analogy between the construction of machinery to 

 calculate, and the occurrence of miracles. A further illustration may 

 be taken from geometry ; curves are represented by equations. In cer- 

 tain curves there are portions, such as ovals, disconnected from the rest 

 of the curve. By properly assigning the values of the constants, these 

 ovals may be reduced to single points. These singular points may exist 

 upon a branch of a curve, or may be entirely isolated from it ; yet these 

 points fulfill by their x)osition the law of the curve as perfectly as any of 

 those which, by their juxtaposition and continuity, form any of its 

 branches." 



" Miracles," Mr, Babbage adds, " are not therefore the breach of es- 

 tablished laws, but the very circumstances that indicate the existence 

 of far higher laws which, at the appointed times, i^roduce their prein- 

 tended results." 



Now whatever may be thought of the conclusiveness of this reasoning, 



