THE SUPERNATURAL. 25 



ing above the comprehension of the spectator 

 and, in his opinion, contrary to the established 

 course of nature, is taken by him to be Divine." 

 And in reply to the objection, that this makes a 

 miracle depend on the opinions or knowledge of 

 the spectator, he points out that this objection 

 cannot be avoided by any of the definitions com- 

 monly adopted ; because " it being agreed that a 

 miracle must be that which surpasses the force of 

 nature in the established steady laws of cause and 

 effect, nothing can be taken to be a miracle but 

 what is judged to exceed those laivs. Now every 

 one being able to judge of those laws only by his 

 own acquaintance with nature, and his own notions 

 of its force, which are different in different men, it 

 is unavoidable that that should be a miracle to 

 one man which is not so to another." In this pas- 

 sage Locke recognises the great truth, that we can 

 never know what is above Nature unless we know 

 all that is within Nature. But he misses another 

 truth quite as important, — that a miracle would 

 still be a miracle even though we did know the 

 laws through which it was accomplished, provided 

 those laws, though not beyond human knowledge, 



