MIR 
branches, three or four feet high. The whole plant vil- 
lofe-glutinofe. It is a native of Huanuco in Peru, and 
flowered in the royal_ garden at Madrid from Auguft to 
December. Cavanilles numbered three and fometimes 
four flam eps in the cultivated plant; it fliould be enquired 
whether the cafe be the fame in the wild plant. 
Propagation and Culture. Sow the feeds on a moderate 
hot-bed in March. When the plants come up, admit 
plenty of air to them when the weather is mild. When 
they are two inches high, tranfplant them on another very 
moderate hot-bed, or plant each in a fmall pot filled with 
light earth, and plunged into a hot-bed, whence they 
may be lhaken out into the borders with more fecurity. 
When they are in the fecond hot-bed, they fliould be (haded 
till they have taken frefli root, after which they mult have 
plenty of free air; and in May they mull: be gradually 
inured to the open air. The beginning of June, if the 
feafon be favourable, tranfplant them into the borders of 
the pleafure-garden, giving them proper room ; and, af¬ 
ter they have taken new root, they will require no farther 
care. If the feeds be fown in a warm border the begin¬ 
ning of April, they will grow very well, but the plants 
will be late in the feafon before they flower. As the feeds 
ripen very well, there are not many perfons who are at 
the trouble of preferving the roots; if tliefe however be 
taken out of the ground in autumn, and laid in dry land 
all the winter, fecured from froft, and planted again in the 
fpring, they will grow much larger, and flower earlier, than 
the feedling plants ; or, if the roots be covered in winter 
with tanners’ bark to keep out the froft, they may remain 
in the borders, provided the foil be dry. If the roots 
which are taken out of the ground be planted the fol¬ 
lowing fpring in large pots, and plunged into a hot-bed, 
under a deep frame, they may be brought forward, and 
railed to the height of four or five feet, and come earlier 
in the feafon to flower. 
The flowers of the third fpecies are highly fcented. A 
few of them gathered in an evening, wdien they expand, 
without the foetid calyx, and placed in a glal's of water, 
will perfume a large apartment all night. We do not 
however recommend them for a bed-chamber, or any clofe 
room. Each flower lafts only one night; but there is a 
copious fucceflion till the clofe of autumn. 
MIRABIL'ITY, /. Wonderfulnefs. Scott. 
MI'RABLE, adj. [mirabilis , Lat.] Wonderful; attract¬ 
ing admiration. Not in ufe. 
Not Neoptolemus fo miralle 
(On whole bright creft Fame with her loud’ft O yes 
Cries “ This is he”) could promife to himfelf 
A thought of added honour torn from HeCtor. Shuliefp. 
MIRACHOW', or Mirchau, a town of Pruflian Po- 
merelia: twelve miles weft of Dantzic. 
MIR'ACLE, f. [mtpacle, Sax. miracle, Fr. miraculum, 
Lat.] A wonder; lomething above human power: 
Virtuous and holy, chofen from above, 
To work exceeding miracles on earth. S/takefp. Hen. VI. 
Be not offended, nature’s miracle, 
Thou art allotted to be ta’en by me. Sliahefp. Hen. VI. 
An effeCt above human or natural power, performed in 
atteftation of Come truth.—The miracles of our Lord are 
peculiarly eminent above the lying wonders of demons, 
in that they were not made out of vain oftentation of 
power, and to raife unprofitable amazement; but for the 
real benefit and advantage of men, by feeding the hungry, 
healing all forts of difeafes, ejecting of devils, and reviving 
the dead. Bentley's Sermons. 
Miracle, in its original fenfe, is a word of the fame 
import with wonder ; but, in its ufual and more appro¬ 
priate (ignification, it denotes “ an effeCt contrary to the 
eftablifhed conftitution and courfe of things, orafenfible 
deviation from the known laws of nature -.” accordingly 
all miracles prefuppofe an eftablifhed fyItem of nature, 
MIR' 555 
within the limits of which they operate, and with the or¬ 
der of which they dilagree. 
Spinoza denies that any power can fuperfede that of 
nature ; or that any thing can difturb, or interrupt, the 
order of things ; and accordingly defines a miracle to be 
a rare event, happening in confequence of fome laws that 
are unknown to us. Our divines define a miracle, an ex¬ 
traordinary and wonderful effeCt above the power of na¬ 
ture, wrought by God, to manifeft his power or provi¬ 
dence, or to give credit to fome meflenger fent from him¬ 
felf. Thus Jefus Chrift evinced the truth of his miffion, 
and his doCtrine, by miracles; and thus alfo did Mofes. 
But there are fcarcely any theological writers that pre- 
cifely agree in their definition of a miracle. Mr. Locke 
defines it to be a fenfible operation, which, being above 
the comprehenfion of the fpeftator, is, in his opinion, 
contrary to the courfe of nature, and taken by him to be 
divine. Dr. Clarke’s definition of a miracle, in the theo¬ 
logical fenfe of the word, is this : that it is a work effected 
in a manner unufual, or different from the common and 
regular method of Providence, by the interpofition either 
of God himfelf, or of fome intelligent agent fuperior to 
man, for the proof or evidence of fome particular doc¬ 
trine, or in atteftation to the authority of fome particular 
perfon. According, to Dr. Sykes, a miracle is a defigned 
effeCt, fenfible, unufual in itfelf, beyond the art and 
power of man to do. Dr. Chandler fays, that a miracle is 
an aCtion done, or an operation vifibly performed, by any 
being, which is really and truly above the reach, natural 
power, and capacity, of that being who does it, of him¬ 
felf, and without the afliftance of fome fuperior agent to 
perform. With this Dr. Hutchefon’s definition nearly 
coincides, viz. that it is a work far exceeding human 
power, yet performed by the command, or upon the vo¬ 
lition, of a man. And the fame writer further obferves, 
that, though miracles may prove the fuperintendency of 
a voluntary agent, and that the univerfe is not guided 
by neceflity or fate; yet that mind muft be weak and 
inadvertent, who needs them to confirm the belief of a 
wife and good Deity; fince the deviation from general 
laws, unlefs upon very extraordinary occafions, muft be 
a prefumption of inconftancy and weaknefs, rather than 
of a fteady wifdom and power; and muft weaken the beft 
arguments we have for the fagacity and power of the 
univerfal mind. 
That the vifible world is governed by dated general 
rules, or that there is an order of caufes and effects efta- 
blifhed in every part of the fyftem of nature which falls 
under our obfervation, is a faCt which cannot be contro¬ 
verted. If the Supreme Being, as fome have fuppofed., 
be the only real agent in the univerfe, we have the evi¬ 
dence of experience, that, in the particular fyftem to 
which we belong, he aCts by dated rules. If he employs 
inferior agents to conduct the various motions from 
which the phenomena refult, we have the fame evidence 
that he has fubjeCted thole agents to certain fixed laws, 
commonly called the laws of nature. On either liypo- 
thefis, effeCts which are produced by the regular opera¬ 
tion of thefe laws, or which are conformable to the efta- 
bliflied courfe of events, are properly called natural; and 
every contradiction to this conftitution of the natural 
fyftem, and the correfpondent courfe of events in it, is 
called a miracle. 
If this definition of a miracle be juft, no event can be 
deemed miraculous merely becaufe it is ftrange, or even 
to us unaccountable; fince it may be nothing more than 
a regular effeCt of fome unknown law of nature. In this 
country, earthquakes are rare; and for monftrous births 
perhaps no particular and fatisfaCtory account can be 
given: yet an earthquake is as regular an effeCt of the 
eftablifhed laws of nature as any of thofe with which we 
are molt intimately acquainted; and, under circumftances 
in which there would always be the fame kind of pro¬ 
duction, the monfter is nature’s genuine iffue. It is there¬ 
fore neceffary, before we can pronounce any effeCt to be 
* . a true 
