ON MIRACLES. 



63 



The question which next presents itself is, what opportu- 

 nities had the compilers, for observing"and correctly re- 

 cording the particulars connected with these so-called 

 Miraclesi 



■file disciples were not always present with the Master, 

 Even if they were, they did not themselves perceive 

 and hear all that they recorded. Even if they did* 

 they could not record, and, as we can shew, did not record, 

 everything; and it was not the wont of any of the 

 ancients to abstain from importing all their own ideas and 

 notions into a matter which they described, or recorded. 

 Zealous in the cause of a Keligion wheh they believed to be 

 the true — over-enthusiastic in extolling the praises of a 

 Teacher whom Jthey regarded as omniscient — credulous in 

 the -extreme of matters which [the more ignorant people of t he 

 present times generally accept as fabulous— ignorant of the 

 most trivial laws of nature — unaccustomed to weigh and 

 balance the evidence necessary to establish a fait however 

 simple, — :nd led away by the current of superstitions, and 

 belief in Miracles, which were the order of the day, Gotaina's 

 disciples, it would seem, hesitated not, for a moment, in 

 recording what they heard, to amplify the tale like ' the 

 story of the three black Crows,'* 



* N.B. — The remainder of this paper containing the text and 

 translation of Kevatta Sutta, is held back for want of the necessary type 

 for its publication. — Ed. 



