676 Analyses of Books. [November, 
rest to the evolutionists to know that the Spirit of a monkey per- 
sisted (habits and all) as if it had been the Spirit of a man, and 
it would give me just as much pleasure to learn that our poor 
relations do continue as if I received a message from some far 
more highly developed being.” 
Mr. Wallace’s book consists of three distinct treatises : — “ An 
Answer to the Arguments of Hume, Lecky, and others, against 
Miracles,” “ The Scientific Aspedt of the Supernatural,” and 
“A Defence of Modern Spiritualism.” 
The first of these essays, which was read eleven years ago 
before the Dialectical Society, and was printed for private circu- 
lation, is, in our opinion, a most complete refutation of Hume’s 
argument. The great Scottish philosopher gives in the outset 
two definitions of miracles. He says that “ a miracle is a vio- 
lation of the laws of Nature,” and again, “ A miracle is a trans- 
gression of a law of Nature by a particular volition of the Deity, 
or by the interposition of some invisible agent.” Mr. Wallace 
shows that these definitions are both bad, and that they in fadfc 
beg the question by the improper use of the terms “ violation ” 
and “transgression.” He writes “ the first definition assumes 
that we know all the laws of Nature ; that the particular effect 
could not be produced by some unknown law of Nature over- 
coming the law we do know : it assumes, also, that if an invisible 
intelligent being held an apple suspended in the air, that adt 
would violate the law of gravity. The second definition is net 
precise ; it should be ‘ some invisible intelligent agent,’ other- 
wise the adtion of galvanism or eledfricity when these agents 
were first discovered, and before they were ascertained to form 
part of the order of Nature, would answer accurately to this 
definition of a miracle.” Mr. Wallace proposes instead the 
following : — A miracle is “ any adt or event necessarily implying 
the existence and agency of superhuman intelligence.” He 
shows further that Hume deliberately and absolutely contradidls 
himself as to the amount and quality of the testimony in favour 
of miracles ; and he points out the palpable fallacy of the argu- 
ment, absolutely puerile, that “ miracles connected with different 
religions destroy each other.” Mr. Wallace next considers the 
modern argument, that if any number of men assert that they 
saw the stone lion on the top of Northumberland House come 
down to drink at the fountains in Trafalgar Square we should not 
believe them. Such arguments turn upon the assumed, but un- 
provable, proposition that “ a large number of independent, 
honest, sane, and sensible witnesses can separately and repeat- 
edly testify to a plain matter of fadt which never happened 
at all.” 
The arguments of Mr. Lecky and Mr. Tylor are dealt with no 
less ably. 
The second treatise is on the “ Scientific Aspedt of Spirit- 
ualism.” One of its most important chapters consists of notes 
