PHILOSOPHY OF HUME 149 



In Chap. VII. on " The Order of Nature : Miracles," 

 we find Huxley's notable parallel between miracles and 

 centaurs : — 



" And nothing short of a careful monograph, by a highly 

 competent investigator, accompanied by figures and measurements 

 of all the most important parts of a centaur, put forth under 

 circumstances which could leave no doubt that falsification or 

 misinterpretation would meet with immediate exposure, could 

 possibly enable a man of science to feel that he acted conscien- 

 tiously, in expressing his belief in the existence of a centaur on 

 the evidence of testimony. 



" This hesitation about admitting the existence of such an 

 animal as a centaur, be it observed, does not deserve reproach, 

 as scepticism, but moderate praise, as mere scientific good faith. 

 It need not imply, and it does not, so far as I am concerned, 

 any a priori hypothesis that a centaur is an impossible animal : 

 or, that his existence, if he did exist, would violate the laws of 

 nature. Indubitably, the organization of a centaur presents a 

 variety of practical difficulties to an anatomist and physiologist ; 

 and a good many of those generalizations of our present experi- 

 ence, which we are pleased to call laws of nature, would be 

 upset by the appearance of such an animal, so that we should 

 have to frame new laws to cover our extended experience. 

 Every wise man will admit that the possibilities of nature are 

 infinite, and include centaurs ; but he will not the less feel it his 

 duty to hold fast, for the present, by the dictum of Lucretius, 

 ' Nam certe ex vivo Centauri non fit imago,' and to cast the 

 entire burthen of the proof, that centaurs exist, on the shoulders 

 of those who ask him to believe the statement. Judged by the 

 canons either of common sense, or of science, which are indeed 

 one and the same, all ' miracles ' are centaurs, or they would 

 not be miracles ; and men of sense and science will deal with 

 them on the same principles" (pp. 1 60-1). 



Huxley's concluding remarks in the last chapter (XL) 

 on "The Principles of Morals," are also well worth 

 quoting : — 



" In which ever way we look at the matter, morality is based 

 on feeling, not on reason ; though reason alone is competent to 



