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AN ANSWER
TO THE
ARGUMENTS OF HUME, LECKY,
AND OTHERS,
AGAINST MIRACLES,
BY
ALFRED R. WALLACE,
Author of “ TJie Malay Archipelago" and “ Contributions to the
Theory of Natural Selection."
PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION, BY JAMES BEVERIDGE,
FULL WOOD’S RENTS, HIGH HOLBOBN.
1871.
��AN ANSWER
TO THE
ARGUMENTS OF HUME, LECKY, AND OTHERS,
AGAINST MIRACLES
It is now generally admitted, that those opinions and
beliefs in which men have been educated generation
after generation, and which have thus come to form
part of their mental nature, are especially liable to be
erroneous, because they keep alive and perpetuate the
ideas and prejudices of a bygone and less enlightened
age. It is therefore in the interest of truth, that every
doctrine or belief, however well established or sacred
they may appear to be, should at certain intervals be
challenged, to arm themselves with such facts and
reasonings as they possess, to meet their opponents in
the open field of controversy, and do battle for their
right to live. Nor can any exemption be claimed in
favour of those beliefs which are the product of modern
civilisation, and which have, for several generations,
been held unquestioned by the great mass of the edu
cated community ; for the prejudice in their favour will
be proportionately great, and, as was the case with the
doctrines of Aristotle and the dogmas of the schoolman,
they may live on by mere weight of authority and force
of habit, long after they have been shown to be opposed
alike to fact and to reason. There have been times when
popular beliefs were defended by the terrors of the law,
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and when the sceptic could only attack them at the
peril of his life. Now we all admit that truth can take
care of itself, and that only error needs protection. But
there is another mode of defence which equally implies
a claim to certain and absolute truth, and which is
therefore equally unworthy and unphilosophical—that
of ridicule, misrepresentation, or a contemptuous
refusal to discuss the question at all. This method is
used among us even now; for there is one belief, or
rather disbelief, whose advocates claim more than papal
infallibility, by refusing to examine the evidence brought
against it, and by alleging general arguments which
have been in use for two centuries to prove that it
cannot be erroneous. The belief to which I allude is,
that all alleged miracles are false,—that what is com
monly understood by the term supernatural does not
exist, or if it does is incapable of proof by any amount
of human testimony,—that all the phenomena we can
have cognisance of depend on ascertainable physical
laws, and that no other intelligent beings than man
and the inferior animals can or do act upon our material
world. These views have been now held almost un
questioned for many generations; they are inculcated
as an essential part of a liberal education ; they are
popular, and are held to be one of the indications of
our intellectual advancement; and they have become so
much a part of our mental nature that all facts and
arguments brought against them are either ignored as
unworthy of serious consideration, or listened to with
undisguised contempt. Now this frame of mind is
certainly not one favourable to the discovery of truth,
and strikingly resembles that by which, in former ages,
systems of error have been fostered and maintained.
The time has, therefore, come when it must be called
upon to justify itself.
This is the more necessary because the doctrine,
whether true or false, actually rests upon a most unsafe
and rotten foundation. I propose to show that the
best arguments hitherto relied upon to prove it are, one
and all, fallacious, and prove nothing of the kind. But
a theory or belief may be supported by very bad argu
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ments, and yet be true ; while it may be supported by
some good arguments, and yet • be false. But there
never was a true theory which had no good arguments
to support it. If therefore all the arguments hitherto
used against miracles in general can be shown to be
bad, it will behove sceptics to discover good ones ; and
if they cannot do so, the evidence in favour of miracles
must be fairly met and judged on its own merits, not
ruled out of court as it is now.
It will be perceived, therefore, that my present pur
pose is to clear the ground for the discussion of the
great question of the so-called supernatural. I shall
not attempt to bring arguments either for or against the
main proposition, but shall confine myself to an examina
tion of the allegations and the reasonings which have been
supposed to settle the whole question on general grounds.
One of the most remarkable works of the great
Scotch philosopher, David Hume is, An Inquiry con
cerning Human Understanding, and the tenth chapter
of this work is On Miracles, in which occur the argu
ments which are so often quoted to show that no evi
dence can prove a miracle. Hume himself had a very
high opinion of this part of his work, for he says at the
beginning of the chapter, “ I flatter myself that I have
discovered an argument which, if just, will with the
wise and learned be an everlasting check to all kinds of
superstitious delusion, and consequently will be useful
as long as the world endures; for so long, I presume,
will the accounts of miracles and prodigies be found in
all history, sacred and profane.”
DEFINITION OF THE TEEM “ MIRACLE.”
After a few general observations on the nature of
evidence and the value of human testimony in different
cases, he proceeds to define what he means by a miracle.
And here at the very beginning of the subject we find
that we have to take objection to Hume’s definition of a
miracle, which exhibits unfounded assumptions and
false premises. He gives two definitions in different
parts of his essay. The first is, “ A miracle is a viola
tion of the laws of nature.” The second is, “ A miracle
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is a transgression of a law of nature by a particular
volition of the Deity, or by the interposition of some
invisible agent.” Now both these definitions are bad
or imperfect. The first assumes, that we know all the
laws of nature, that the particular effect could not be
produced by some unknown law of nature overcoming
the law we do know ; it assumes, also, that if any in
visible intelligent being held an apple suspended in the
air, that act would violate the law of gravity. The
second is not precise; it should be “ some invisible
intelligent agent,” otherwise the action of galvanism or
electricity, 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. The words. “ violation ” and “ transgression ”
are both improperly used, and really beg the question
by the definition. How does Hume know that any
particular miracle is a violation of a law of nature ?
He assumes this without a shadow of proof, and on
these words, as we shall see, rests his whole argument.
Before proceeding further, it is necessary for us to
consider what is the true definition of a miracle, or
what is most commonly meant by that word. A miracle,
as distinguished from a new and unheard of natural
phenomenon, supposes an intelligent superhuman agent
either visible or invisible. It is not necessary that what
is done should be beyond the power of man to do : the
simplest action, if performed independently of human
or visible agency, such as a teacup lifted in the air at
request, as by an invisible hand and without assignable
cause, would be universally admitted to be a miracle;
as much so as the lifting of a house into the air, the
instantaneous healing of a wound, or the instantaneous
production of an elaborate drawing. My definition of
a miracle therefore is as follows :—“ Any act or event
implying the existence and agency of superhuman in
telligences,” considering the human soul or spirit, if
manifested out of the body, as one of these superhuman
intelligencies. This definition is more complete than
that of Hume, and defines more accurately the essence
of that which is commonly termed a miracle.
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THE EVIDENCE OF THE REALITY OF MIRACLES.
We now have to consider Hume’s arguments.
first is as follows :—
The
“ A miracle is a violation of the Ians of nature; and as a
firm and unalterable experience has established these laws,
the proof against a miracle, from the very nature, of the fact,
is as entire as any argument from experience can possibly be
imagined. Why is it more than probable that all men must die;
that lead cannot of itself remain suspended in the air; that
fire consumes wood, and is extinguished by water ; unless it
be, that these events are found agreeable to the laws of nature,
and there is required a violation of these Ians, or, in other
words a miracle, to prevent them ? Nothing is esteemed a
miracle, if it ever happened in the common course of nature.
It is no miracle that a man seemingly in good health should
die on a sudden ; because such a kind of death, though more
unusual than any other, has yet been frequently observed to
happen. But it is a miracle that a dead man should come to
life ; because that has never been observed in any age or coun
try. There must, therefore, be an uniform experience against
every miraculous event, otherwise the event would not merit
that appellation. And as an uniform experience amounts to a
proof, there is here a direct and full proof, from the nature of
the fact, against the existence of any miracle ; nor can such a
proof be destroyed, or the miracle rendered credible, but by
an opposite proof, which is superior.”
This argument is radically fallacious, because if it
were sound, no perfectly new fact could ever be proved,
since the first and each succeeding witness would be
assumed to have universal experience against him.
Such a simple fact as the existence of flying fish could
never be proved, if Hume’s argument is a good one;
for the first man who saw and described one, would
have the universal experience against him that fish do
not fly, or make any approach to flying, and his evi
dence being rejected, the same argument would apply to
the second, and to every subsequent witness, and thus
no man at the present day who has not seen a flying
fish ought to believe that such things exist.
Again, painless operations in a state produced by
mere passes of the hand, were, twenty-five years ago,
maintained to be contrary to the laws of nature, con
trary to all human experience, and therefore incredible.
On Hume’s principles they were miracles, and no
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amount of testimony could ever prove them to be real.
But miracles do not stand alone, single facts opposed to
uniform experience. Reputed miracles abound in all
periods of history; every one has a host of others
leading up to it; and every one has strictly analogous
facts testified to at the present day. The uniform op
posing experience, therefore, on which Hume lays so
much stress does not exist. What, for instance, can
be a more striking miracle than the levitation 01
raising of the human body into' the air without visible
cause, yet this fact has been testified to during a long
series of centuries.
A few well known examples are those of St. Francis
d’Assisi, who was often seen by many persons to rise
in the air, and the fact is testified to by his secretary,
who could only reach his feet. Saint Theresa, a nun in
a convent in Spain, was often raised into the air in the
sight of all the sisterhood. Lord Orrery and Mr.
Valentine Greatorex both informed Dr. Henry More
and Mr. Glanvil, that at Lord Conway’s house at
Ragley in Ireland, a gentleman’s butler, in their pre
sence and in broad daylight, rose into the air and floated
about the room above their heads. This is related by
Glanvil in his Sadducismus Triumphatus. A similai
fact is narrated by eyewitnesses of Ignatius de Loyola :
and Mr. Madden, in his life of Savonarola, after narrat
ing a similar circumstance of that saint, remarks, that
similar phenomena are related in numerous instances,
and that the evidence upon which some of the narra
tives rest, is as reliable as any human testimony can be.
Butler, in his Lives of the Saints, says that many such
facts are related by persons of undoubted veracity, who
testify that they themselves were eyewitnesses of them.
So, we all know that at least fifty persons of high
character may be found in London, who will testify
that they have seen the same thing happen to Mr.
Home. I do not adduce this testimony as proving that
the circumstances related really took place; I merely
bring it forward now to show how utterly unfounded is
Hume’s argument, which rests upon universal testi
mony on the one side, and no testimony on the other.
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THE CONTBADICTOBY NATUBE OF HUME’S ESSAY.
I now have to show that in Hume’s efforts to prove
his point, he contradicts himself in a manner so gross
and complete, as is perhaps not to be found in the
works of any other eminent author. The first passage
I will quote is as follows :—
“ For, first, there is not to be found, in all history, any mira
cle attested by a sufficient number of men, of such unques
tioned good sense, education, and learning, as to secure us
against all delusion in themselves ; of such undoubted integrity,
as to place them beyond all suspicion of any design to deceive
others ; of such credit and reputation in the eyes of mankind,
as to have a great deal to lose in case of their being detected
in any falsehood ; and at the same time attesting facts per
formed in such a public manner, and in so celebrated apa/rt of
the world, as to render the detection unavoidable : all which
circumstances are requisite to give us a full assurance in the
testimony of men.”
A few pages further on, we find this passage :—
“ There surely never was a greater number of miracles as
cribed to one person, than those which were lately said to
have been wrought in France upon the tomb of Abbe Paris,
the famous Jansenist, with whose sanctity the people were so
long deluded. The curing of the sick, giving hearing to the
deaf, and sight to the blind, were everywhere talked of as the
usual effects of that holy sepulchre. But what is more extra
ordinary, many of the miracles were immediately proved upon
the spot, before judges of unquestioned integrity, attested by
witnesses of credit and distinction, in a learned age, and on
the most eminent theatre that is non in the norld. Nor is this
all. A relation of them was published and dispersed every
where ; nor were the Jesuits, though a learned body, supported
by the civil magistrate, and determined enemies to those
opinions, in whose favour the miracles were said to have been
wrought, ever able distinctly to refute or detect them. Where
shall we find such a number of circumstances, agreeing to the
corroboration of one fact ? And what have we to oppose to
such a cloud of witnesses, but the absolute impossibility, or
miraculous nature of the events which they relate ? And this,
surely, in the eyes of all reasonable people, will alone be re
garded as a sufficient refutation.”
In the second passage he affirms the existence of
every single fact and quality which in the first passage
he declared never existed, and he entirely changes his
ground of argument by appealing to the inherent impos
�10
sibility of the fact, andnot at all to the insufficiency of the
evidence. He even makes this contradiction still more
remarkable by a note which he has himself given to
this passage, a portion of which is as follows : —
“ This book was writ by Mons. Montgeron, councillor or
judge of the parliament of Paris, a man of figure and charac-i
ter, who was also a martyr to the cause, and is now said to be
somewhere in a dungeon on account of his book. . . .
“Many of the miracles of Abbe Paris were proved immedi
ately by witnesses before the officiality or bishop’s court at
Paris, under the eye of Cardinal Ncailles ; whose character for
integrity and capacity was never contested, even by his ene
mies.
“ His successor in the archbishopric was an enemy to the Jan
senists, and for that reason promoted to the see by the court.
Yet twenty-two rectors or cures of Paris, with infinite earnest
ness, press him to examine those miracles, which they assert to
be known to the whole world, and indisputably certain; but
he wisely forbore. . . .
“ All who have been in France about that time have heard of
the reputation of Mons. Herault, the lieutenant of Police,
whose vigilance, penetration, activity, and extensive intelli-l
gence, have been much talked of. This magistrate who, by
the nature of his office, is almost absolute, was invested with
full powers, on purpose to suppress or discredit these miracles;
and he frequently seized immediately, and examined the wit
nesses and subjects to them : but never could reach anything
satisfactory against them.
“ In the case of Mademoiselle Thibaut he sent the famous De
Sylva to examine her ; whose evidence is very curious. The
physician declares, that it was impossible that she could have
been so ill as was proved by witnesses ; because it was impos
sible she could in so short a time have recovered so perfectly
as he found her. He reasoned like a man of sense, from
natural causes; but the opposite party told him, that the whole
was a miracle, and that his evidence was the very best proof
of it. , . .
“ No less a man than the Due de Chatillon, a duke and peer
of France, of the highest rank and family, gives evidence of a
miraculous cure performed upon a servant of his, who had
lived several years in his house with a visible and palpable in
firmity.
“ I shall conclude with observing, that no clergy are more
celebrated for strictness of life and manners than the regular
clergy of France, particularly the rectors or cuiAs of Paris, who
bear testimony to these impostures.
“ The learning, genius, and probity of the gentlemen, and
the austerity of the nuns of Port-Royal, have been much cele
brated all over Europe. Yet they all give evidence for a
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miracle, wrought on the niece of the famous Pascal, whose
sanctity of life, as well as extraordinary capacity, is well
known. The famous Racine gives an account of this miracle
in his famous history of Port-Royal, and fortifies it with all
the proofs, which a multitude of nuns, priests, physicians, and
men of the world, all of them of undoubted credit, could be
stow upon it. Several men of letters, particularly the Bishop
of Tournay, thought this miracle so certain, as to employ it in
the refutation of Atheists and Freethinkers. The queen-regent
of France, who was extremely prejudiced, against the PortRoyal, sent her own physician to examine the miracle, who
returned an absolute convert. In short the supernatural cure
was so incontestible, that it saved, for a time, that famous
monastery from the ruin with which it was threatened by the
Jesuits. Had it been a cheat, it had certainly been detected
by such sagacious and powerful antagonists, and must have
hastened the ruin of the contrivers."
It seems almost incredible that this can have been
written by the great sceptic David Hume, and written
in the same work in which he has already affirmed that
in all history no such evidence is to be found. In order
to show how very remarkable the evidence is to which
he alludes, I think it well to give you one of the cases
in greater detail, as recorded in the original work of
Montgeron, and quoted in Mr. William Howitt’s History
of the Supernatural:—
“ Mademoiselle Coirin was afflicted, amongst other ailments,
with a cancer in the left breast, for twelve years. The breast
was destroyed by it, and came away in a mass ; the effluvia
from the cancer was horrible, and the whole blood of the
system was pronounced infected by it. Every physician pro
nounced the case utterly incurable, yet, by a visit to the tomb,
she was perfectly cured ; and, what was more astonishing, the
breast and nipple were wholly restored, with the skin pure
and fresh, and free from any trace of scar. This case was
known to the highest people in the realm. When the miracle
was denied, Mademoiselle Coirin went to Paris, was examined
by the royal physician, and made a formal deposition of her
cure before a public notary. Mademoiselle Coirin was daughter
of an officer of the royal household, and had two brothers in
attendance on the person of the king. The testimonies of the
doctors are of the most decisive kind. M. Gaulard, physician
to the king, deposed officially, that, ‘ to restore a nipple abso
lutely destroyed, and separated from the breast, was an actual
creation, because a nipple is not merely a continuity of the
vessels of the breast, but a particular body, which is of a distinct
and peculiar organisation.’ M. Souchay, surgeon to the Prince
of Conti, not only pronounced the cancer incurable, but, having
�12
examined the breast after the cure, went of himself to the public
notary, and made a formal deposition ‘ that the cure was per
fect that each breast had its nipple in its natural form and
condition, with the colours and attributes proper to those
parts.’ Such also are the testimonies of Seguier, the surgeon
of the hospital at Nanterre ; of M. Deshieres, surgeon to the
Duchess of Berry • of M. Hequet, one of the most celebrated
surgeons in France; and numbers of others, as well as of
public officers and parties of the greatest reputation, univer
sally known ; all of whose depositions are officially and fully
given by Montgeron.”
This is only one out of a great number of cases
equally marvellous, and equally well attested, and we
therefore cannot be surprised at Hume’s being obliged
to give up the argument of the insufficiency of the evi
dence for miracles and of the uniform experience against
them, the wonder being that he ever put forth an argu
ment which he was himself able to refute so completely.
We now have another argument which Hume brings
forward, but which is, if possible, still weaker than the
last. He says :—
“I may add, as a fourth reason, which diminishes the au
thority of prodigies, that there is no testimony for any, even
those which have not been expressly detected, that is not op
posed by any infinite number of witnesses ; so that not only
the miracle destroys the credit of testimony, but the testimony
destroys itself. To make this the better understood, let us
consider that, in matters of religion, whatever is different is
contrary; and that it is impossible the religions of ancient
Borne, of Turkey, and Siam, and of China, should, all of them,
be established on any solid foundation. Everymiracle, therefore,
pretended to have been wrought in any of these religions (and
all of them abound in miracles), as its direct scope is to estab
lish the particular system to which it is attributed ; so has it
the same force, though more indirectly, to overthrow every
other system. In destroying a rival system, it likewise des
troys the credit of those miracles on which that system was
established ; so that all the prodigies of different religions are
to be regarded as contrary facts ; and the evidences of these
prodigies, whether weak or strong, as opposite to each other.
According to this method of reasoning, when we believe any
miracle of Mahomet or his successors, we have for our war
rant the testimony of a few barbarous Arabians. And, on the
other hand, we are to regard the authority of Titus Livius,
Plutarch, Tacitus, and, in short, of all the authors and wit
nesses, Grecian, Chinese, and Roman Catholic, who have
related any miracle in their particular religion ; I say, we are
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to regard their testimony in the same light as if they had
mentioned that Mahometan miracle, and had in express terms
contradicted it, with the sam e certainty as they have for the
miracle they relate.”
Now this argument, if argument it can be called,
rests upon the extraordinary assumption that a miracle,
if real, can only come from God, and must therefore
support only a true religion. It assumes also that
religions cannot be true unless given by God. Mr.
Hume assumes, therefore, to know that nothing which
we term a miracle can possibly be performed by any of
the probably infinite number of intelligent beings who
may exist in the universe between ourselves and the
Deity. He confounds the evidence for the fact with the
theories to account for the fact, and most illogically and
unphilosophically argues, that if the theories lead to con
tradictions, the facts themselves do not exist.
I think, therefore, that I have now shown that—1.
Hume gives a false definition of miracles, which begs
the question of their possibility. 2. He states the fal
lacy that miracles are isolated facts, to which the entire
course of human testimony is opposed. 3. He delibe
rately and absolutely contradicts himself as to the
amount and quality of the testimony in favour of
miracles. 4. He propounds the palpable fallacy as to
miracles connected with opposing religions destroying
each other.
MODERN OBJECTIONS TO MIRACLES.
We will now proceed to some of the more modern
arguments against miracles. One of the most popular
modern objections consists of making a supposition and
drawing an inference, which looks like a dilemma, but
which is really none at all.
This argument has been put in several forms. One
is, “ If a man tells me he came from York by the tele
graph-wire, I do not believe him. If fifty men tell me
they came from York by telegraph wires, I do not
believe them. If any number of men tell me the same,
I do not believe them. Therefore, Mr. Home did not
float in the air, notwithstanding any amount of testimony you may bring to prove it.”
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Another is, “ If a man tells me that he saw the lion
on Northumberland-house descend into Trafalgar-square
and drink water from the fountains, I should not believe
him. If fifty men, or any number of men, informed
me of the same thing, I should still not believe them.”
Hence it is inferred that there are certain things so
absurd and so incredible, that no amount of testimony
could possibly make a sane man believe them.
Now, these illustrations look like arguments, and at
first sight it is not easy to see the proper way to answer
them ; but the fact is that they are utter fallacies, be
cause their whole force depends upon an assumed pro
position which has never been proved, and which I
challenge anyone to prove. The proposition is, that
a large number of independent, honest, sane, and sen
sible witnesses, can testify to a plain matter of fact
which never occurred at all.
Now, no evidence has ever been adduced to show,
that this ever has happened or ever could happen. But
the assumption is rendered still more monstrous when
we consider the circumstances attending such cases as
those of the cures at the tomb of the Abbe Paris, and
the cases of modern scientific men being converted to
a belief in the reality of the phenomena of modern
Spiritualism; for we must assume that, being fully
warned that the alleged facts are impossible and are
therefore delusions, and having the source of the sup
posed delusion pointed out, and all the prejudices of the
age and the whole tone of educated thought being
against the reality of such facts, yet numbers of edu
cated men, including physicians and men of science, are
convinced of the reality of the facts after the most
searching investigation. Yet the assumption that such
an amount and quality of independent converging
evidence can be all false, must be proved to be a fact if
the argument is to have the slightest value, otherwise
it is merely begging the question. It must be remem-l
bered that we have to consider, not absurd beliefs or false
inferences, but plain matters of fact; and it cannot be
proved, and never has been proved, that any large
amount of cumulative evidence of disinterested and
�15
sensible men, was ever obtained for an absolute and
entire delusion. To put the matter in a simple form,
the asserted fact is either possible, or not possible. If
possible, such evidence as we have been considering
would prove it; if not possible, such evidence could not
exist. The argument is, therefore, an absolute fallacy,
since its fundamental assumption cannot be proved. If
it is intended merely to enunciate the proposition, that
the more strange and unusual a thing is the more and
the better evidence we require for it, that we all admit;
but I maintain, that human testimony increases in value
in such an enormous ratio with each additional inde
pendent and honest witness, that no fact ought to be
rejected when attested by such a body of evidence as
exists for many of the events termed miraculous or
supernatural, and which occur now daily among us.
The burden of proof lies on those who maintain that
such evidence can possibly be fallacious ; let them point
out one case in which such cumulative evidence existed,
and which yet proved to be false; let them give not
supposition, but proof.
THE UNCEBTAINTY OF THE ASSEBTED PHENOMENA OF
MODEBN SPITITUALISM.
Another modern argument is used more especially
against the reality of the so-called Spiritual phenomena.
It is said, “ These phenomena are so uncertain, you
have no control over them, they follow no law; prove
to us that they follow definite laws like all other groups
of natural phenomena, and we will believe them.”
This argument appears to have weight with some per
sons, and yet it is really an absurdity. The essence
of the alleged phenomena (whether they be true or not,
is of no importance) is, that they seem to be the result
of the action of independent intelligences, and are
therefore deemed to be Spiritual or superhuman. If
they had been found to follow strict law and not inde
pendent will, no one would have ever supposed them to
be Spiritual. The argument, therefore, is merely the
statement of a foregone conclusion, namely, “ As long
as your facts go to prove the existence of distinct intel
�16
ligences, we will not believe > them; demonstrate that
they follow fixed law, and not.,intelligence, and then
we will believe them,” This argument appears to me
to be childish, and yet it is used by some persons who
claim to be philosophical.
THE NECESSITY OE SCIENTIFIC TESTIMONY.
Another objection which I have heard stated in publicJ
and received with applause is, that it requires immense
scientific knowledge to decide on the reality of any un
common or incredible facts, and that till scientific men
investigate and prove them they are not worthy of
credit. Now I venture to say, that a greater fallacy
than this was never put forth. The subject is a very
important one, and the error is a very common one, but
the fact is the exact opposite of what is stated ; for I
assert that, whenever the scientific men of any age have
denied the facts of investigators on a priori grounds,
they have always been wrong.
It is not necessary to do more than refer to the worldknown names of Galileo, Harvey, and Jenner; the great
discoveries they made were, as we all know, violently
opposed by their scientific contemporaries, to whom
they appeared absurd and incredible; but we have
equally striking examples much nearer to our own day.
When Benjamin Franklin brought the subject of light
ning conductors before the Boyal Society, he was
laughed at as a dreamer, and his paper was not admitted
to the Philosophical Transactions. When Young put
forth his wonderful proofs of the undulatory theory of
light, he was equally hooted at as absurd by the popular
scientific writers of the day. The Edinburgh Review
called upon the public to put Thomas Gray into a
straight jacket for maintaining the practicability of
railroads. Sir Humphry Davy laughed at the idea of
London ever being lighted with gas. When Stephenson
proposed to use locomotives on the Liverpool and Man
chester Bailway, learned men gave evidence that it was
impossible that they could go even twelve miles an
hour. Another great scientific authority declared it to
be equally impossible for ocean steamers ever to cross
�17
the Atlantic. The French Academy of Sciences ridi
culed the great astronomer Arago, when he wanted even
to discuss the subject of the electric telegraph. Medical
men ridiculed the stethoscope 'when it was first dis
covered. Painless operations during the mesmeric coma
were pronounced impossible, and therefore impostures.
But one of the most striking, because one of the most
recent cases of this opposition to, or rather disbelief in
facts opposed to the current belief of the day, among
men who are generally charged with going too far in
the other direction, is that of the doctrine of the “Anti
quity of Man.” Boue, an experienced French geologist,
in 1823, discovered a human skeleton eighty feet deep
in the loess or hardened mud of the Rhine. It was
sent to the great anatomist Cuvier, who so utterly dis
credited the fact that he threw aside this invaluable
fossil as worthless, and it was lost. Sir C. Lyell, from
personal investigation on the spot, now believes that
the statements of the original observer were quite accu
rate. So early as 1715 flint weapons were found with
the skeleton of an elephant in an excavation in Gray’sinn-lane, in the presence of Mr. Conyers, who placed
them in the British Museum, where they remained,
utterly unnoticed till quite recently. In 1800, Mfr.
Frere found flint weapons along with the remains of
extinct animals at Hoxne, in Suffolk. From 1841 to
1846, the celebrated French geologist, Boucher de
Perthes, discovered great quantities of flint weapons in
the drift gravels of the North of France, but for many
years he could convince none of his fellow scientific
men that they were works of art, or worthy of the
slightest attention. At length, however, in 1853, he
began to make converts. In 1859-60, some of our own
most eminent geologists visited the spot, and fully
affirmed the truth of his observations and deductions.
Another branch of the subject was, if possible, still
worse treated. In 1825, Mr. McEnery, of Torquay,
discovered worked flints along with the remains of
extinct amimals in the celebrated Kent’s Hole Cavern,
but his account of his discoveries was simply laughed at.
tin 1840, one of our first geologists, Mr. Godwin Austen,
�18
brought this matter before the Geological Society, and
Mr. Vivian, of Torquay, sent in a paper fully confirming
Mr. McEnery’s discoveries, but it was thought too im
probable to be pubhshed. Fourteen years later, the
Torquay Natural History Society made further observa
tions, entirely confirming the previous ones, and sent
an account of them to the Geological Society of London,
but the paper was rejected as too improbable for publi
cation. Now, however, for five years past, the cave
has been systematically explored under the superinten
dence of a Committee of the British Association, and all
the previous reports for forty years have been confirmed,
and have been shown to be even less wonderful than
the reality. It may be said that “ this was proper
scientific caution.” Perhaps it was; but at all events
it proves this important fact, that in this, as in every
other case, the observers have been right, those who
rejected their observations have been wrong.
Now, are the modern observers of some phenomena
usually termed supernatural and incredible, less worthy
of attention than these already quoted ? Let us take,
first, the reality of what is called clairvoyance. The
men who have observed this phenomenon, who have
carefully tested it through long years or through their
whole lives, will rank in scientific knowledge, and in
intellectual ability, as quite equal to any observers in
any other branch of discovery. We have no less than
seven eminent medical men, Drs. Elliotson, Gregory,
AshburneK, Lee, Herbert Mayo, Esdaile, and Haddock,
besides persons of such high ability as Miss Martineau,
Mr. H. G. Atkinson, Mr. Charles Bray, and Baron
Richenbach. With the history of previous discoverers
before us, is it more likely that these eleven educated
persons, knowing all the arguments against the facts,
and investigating them carefully, should be all wrong,
and those who say a priori that the thing is impossible
should be all right, or the contrary? If we are to
learn anything by history and experience, then we may
safely prognosticate that, in this case as in so many
others, the disbelievers in other men’s observations will
be found to be in the wrong.
�19
REVIEW OF MB. LECKY’S STATEMENTS ABOUT MIRACLES.
We now come to the modern philosophical objectors,
most eminent among whom is Mr. Lecky, author of the
History of Rationalism and the History of Morals. In
the latter work he has devoted some space to this ques
tion, and his clear and well expressed views may be
taken to represent the general opinions and feelings of
the educated portion of modern society.
He says:—
“The attitude of ordinary educated people towards miracles
is not that of doubt, of hesitation, of discontent with the
existing evidence, but rather of absolute, derisive, and even
unexamining incredulity.”
He then goes on to explain why this is so :—
“ In certain stages of society, and under the action of cer
tain influences, an accretion of miracles is invariably formed
around every prominent person or institution. We can
analyse the general causes that have impelled men towards the
miraculous; we can show that these causes have never failed
to produce the effect; and we can trace the gradual alteration
of mental conditions invariably accompanying the decline of
the belief.
“When men are destitute of the critical spirit, when the
notion of uniform law is yet unborn, and when their imagina
tions are still incapable of rising to abstract ideas, histories
of miracles are always formed and always believed ; and they
continue to flourish and to multiply until these conditions are
altered. Miracles cease when men cease to believe and ex
pect them. . . .”
Again:—
“We do not say they are impossible, or even that they are
not authenticated by as much evidence as many facts we
believe. We only say that, in certain states of society, illu
sions of this kind inevitably appear. ...”
“ Sometimes we can discover the precise natural fact which
the superstition has misread, but more frequently we can give
only a general explanation, enabling us to assign these legends
to their place, as the normal expression of a certain stage of
knowledge or intellectual power; and this explanation is their
refutation.”
Now, in these statements and arguments of Mr.
Lecky, we find some fallacies hardly less striking than
�20
those of Hume. His assertion that in certain stages of
society an accretion of miracles is invariably formed
round every prominent person or institution, appears to
me to be absolutely contradicted by certain wellknown historical facts.
The Church of Home has ever been the great theatre
of miracles, whether ancient or modern. The most
prominent person in the Church of Rome is the Pope;
the most prominent institution is the Papacy. We
should expect, therefore, if Mr. Lecky’s statement be
correct, that the Popes would be pre-eminently miracle
workers. But the fact is, that with the exception of
one or two very early ones, no miracles whatever are
recorded of the great majority of the Popes. On the
contrary, it has been generally among the very humblest
members of the Romish Church, whether clergy or
laity, that the power of working miracles has ap
peared, and which has led to their being canonized
as saints.
Again, to take another instance, the most prominent
person connected with the reformed churches is Luther.
He himself believed in .miracles. The whole world in
his day believed in miracles, and miracles, though gene
rally of a demoniac character, continued rife in all Pro
testant churches for many generations after his death ;
yet there has been no accretion of miracles round this
remarkable man.
Nearer to our own day we have Irving, at the head
of a church of miracle-workers; and J oe Smith, the
founder of the miracle-working Mormons • yet there
is. not the slightest sign of any tendency to impute any
miracles to either of these men, other than those which
the latter individual claimed for himself before his
sect was established. These very striking facts seem
to me to prove that there must be some basis of fact
in nearly every alleged miracle, and that the theory of
any growth or accretion round prominent individuals
is utterly without evidence to support it. It is one of
those convenient general statements which sound very
plausible and very philosophical, but for which no proof
whatever is offered.
�21
THE DECLINE OF BELIEF IN MIRACLES.
Another of Mr. Lecky’s statements is, that there is
an alteration of mental conditions invariably accom
panying the decline of belief. But this “invariable
accompaniment” certainly cannot be proved, because
the decline of the belief has only occurred once in the
history of the world ; and, what is still more remark
able, while the mental conditions which accompanied
that one decline have continued in force or have even
increased in energy and are much more widely diffused,
belief has now for twenty years been growing up again.
In the highest states of ancient civilisation, both among
the Greeks and Romans, the belief existed in full force,
and has been testified to by the highest and most intel
lectual men of every age. The decline which in the
present century has certainly taken place, cannot,
therefore, be imputed to any general law, since it is but
an exceptional instance.
Again, Mr. Lecky says that the belief in the super
natural only exists “ when men are destitute of the
critical spirit, and when the notion of uniform law is
yet unborn.” Mr. Lecky in this matter contradicts
himself almost as much as Hume did. One of the
greatest advocates for the belief in the supernatural was
Glanvil, and this is what Mr. Lecky says of Glanvil.
He says that Glanvil “ has been surpassed in genius
by few of his successors.”
‘‘ The predominating characteristic of Glanvil’s mind was
an intense scepticism. He has even been termed by a modern
critic the first English writer who has thrown scepticism into
a definite form ; and if we regard this expression as simply
implying a profound distrust of human faculties, the judgment
can hardly be denied. And certainly it would be difficult to
fmd a work displaying less of credulity and superstition than
the treatise on ‘The Vanity of Dogmatising,’ afterwards pub
lished as Scepsis Scientifica, in which. Glanvil expounded his
philosophical views......... The Sadducismus Triumphatus is
probably the ablest book ever published in defence of the
reality of witchcraft. Dr. Henry Moore, the illustrious Boyle,
and the scarcely less eminent Cudworth, warmly supported
Glanvil; and no writer comparable to these in ability or in
fluence appeared on the other side ; yet the scepticism steadily
ingreased.”
�22
Again Mr. Lecky thus speaks of Glanvil:—
-‘It was between the writings of Bacon and Locke that that
latitudinarian school was formed which was irradiated by the
genius of Taylor, Glanvil, and Hales, and which became th*
very centre and seedplot of religious liberty.”
M__‘
jail
ipg
These are the men and these the mental conditions vtwi
which are favourable to superstition and delusion !
The critical spirit and the notion of uniform law are
certainly powerful enough in the present day, yet ir
every country in the civilised world there are now hun
dreds and thousands of intelligent men who believe, on
the testimony of their own senses, in phenomena which
Mr. Lecky and others would term miraculous, anc
therefore incredible. Instead of being, as Mr. Lecky
says, an indication of “ certain states of society”—“ tht
normal expression of a certain stage of knowledge or in wtt
tellectual power”—this belief has existed in all states oi Ml-*
society, and has accompanied every stage of intellectual
power. Socrates, Plutarch, and St. Augustine alike, givr
personal testimony to supernatural facts ; this testimony
never ceased through the middle ages; the early reformers, Luther and Calvin, throng the ranks of wit- ~
nesses ; all the philosophers, and all the judges oi
England down to Sir Matthew Hale, admitted that the ara
evidence for such facts was irrefutable. Many cases tji
have been rigidly investigated by the police authorities
of various countries, and, as we have already seen, th-1
miracles at the tomb of the Abbe Paris, which occurred :.i_
in the most sceptical period of Trench history, in the ofv
age of Voltaire and the encyclopaedists, were proved by wk
such an array of evidence, and were so open to investi- mw
gation, that one of the noblemen of that court—con---- *
vinced of their reality after the closest scrutiny— /'.bi
suffered the martyrdom of imprisonment in the Bastite
A
for insisting upon making them public. And in our
_
own day we have, at the lowest estimate, many millions—afcr
of believers in modern Spiritualism in all classes oi
society; so that the belief which Mr. Lecky imputes '/rat'
to a certain stage of intellectual culture only, apau
pears on the contrary to have all the attributes of uni
versality.
�23
7/
IS THE BELIEF IN MIRACLES A SURVIVAL OF SAVAGE
THOUGHT ?
The philosophical argument has been put in another
form by Mr. E. B. Tylor, in a lecture at the Royal
Institution, and in several passages in his other works.
He main tains-that all Spiritualistic and other beliefs in
the supernatural are examples of the survival of savage
thought among civilised people; but he ignores the facts
which compel the beliefs. The thoughts of those edu
cated men who know, from the evidence of their own
senses, that things called supernatural are true and real
facts, are as totally distinct from those of savages, as
are their thoughts respecting the sun, or thunder, or
disease, or any other natural phenomenon. As well
might he maintain that the modern belief that the sun
is a fiery mass, is a survival of savage thought, because
some savages believe so too ; or that our belief that cer
tain diseases are contagious, is a similar survival of the
savage idea that a man can convey a disease to his
enemy. The question is a question of facts, not of
theories or thoughts, and I entirely deny the value or
relevance of any general arguments, theories, or analo
gies, when we have to decide on matters of fact.
Thousands of intelligent men now living know,
from personal observation, that some of the strange
phenomena which have been pronounced absurd and
i impossible by scientific men, are nevertheless true. It
is no answer to these and no explanation of the facts,
to tell them that such beliefs, only occur when men are
destitute of the critical spirit, and when the notion of
uniform law is yet unborn; that in certain states of
society illusions of this kind inevitably appear, that
they are only the normal expression of certain stages of
knowledge and of intellectual power, and that they
clearly prove the survival of savage modes of thought in
the midst of modern civilisation.
I believe that I have now shown—1. That Hume’s
arguments against miracles are full of unwarranted
assumptions, fallacies, and contradictions; 2. That the
modern argument of the telegraph-wire conveyance and
�24
drinking stone-lion, are positively no arguments at all,
since they rest on false or unproved premises ; 3. That
the argument, that dependence is to be placed upon
men of science and upon them only, is opposed to uni
versal experience and the whole history of science ; 4.
That the philosophical argument' so well put by Mr.
Lecky and Mr. Tylor, rests on false or unproved assump
tions, and is therefore valueless.
In conclusion, I must again emphatically declare that
the question I have been discussing is—in no way
whether miracles are true or false, or whether modern
Spiritualism rests upon a basis of fact or of delusion,—
but solely, whether the arguments that have hitherto
been supposed conclusive against them have any weight
or value. If I have shown, as I flatter myself I have
done, that the arguments which have been supposed to
settle the general question so completely as to render it
quite unnecessary to go into particular cases, are all
utterly fallacious, then I shall have cleared the ground
for the production of evidence, and no honest man
desirous of arriving at truth will be able to evade an
enquiry into the nature and amount of .that evidence, by
moving the previous question—that miracles are unprovable by any amount of human testimony. It is
time that the “ derisive and unexamining incredulity ”
which has hitherto existed should give way to a less
dogmatic and more philosophical spirit, or history will
again have to record the melancholy spectacle of men, who
should have known better, assuming to limit the dis
covery of new powers and agencies in the universe, and
deciding, without investigation, whether other men’s
observations are true or false.
�
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An answer to the arguments of Hume, Lecky and others, against miracles
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Wallace, Alfred Russel [1823-1913]
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Collation: 24 p. ; 18 cm.
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Superstition
Conway Tracts
Miracles
Superstition
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Text
NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
AN
ESSAY
* ON MIRACLES.
BY 'p
DAVID HUME.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION
Commenting upon the views of Campbell, Paley, Mill,
Powell, Greg, Mozley, Tyndall, Huxley, etc.,
1SY
JOSEPH MAZZINI WHEELER.
“Apologists find it much more convenient to evade the simple but
effective arguments of Hume than to answer them."—11 Supernatural
Religion," vol. i.,p. 78.
LONDON :
I
FREETHOUGHT PUBLISHING COMPANY,
28, STONECUTTER STREET, E.C.
1 882.
PRICE
THREEPENCE.
�BIBLE
ROMANCES.
By G. W. FOOTE.
1. —THE CREATION. STORY' ..................
2. —NOAH’S FLOOD
..................................
3. —EVE AND THE APPLE..........................
4. —THE BIBLE DEVIL..................................
5. —THE TEN PLAGUES
..........................
6. —JONAH AND THE WHALE..................
7. —THE WANDERING JEWS ..................
A—THE TOWER OF BABEL ..................
9.—BALAAM’S ASS.........................................
10. —GOD’S THIEVES IN CANAAN ...........
11. —CAIN AND ABEL ..................................
12. —LOT’S WIFE
..........................................
Id.
Id.
Id.
Id.
Id.
Id.
Id.
Id.
Id.
Id.
Id.
Id.
BIBLE ROMANCES—First Series—Containing the above Twelve
Numbers, bound in handsome wrapper. Is.
SECOND SERIES.
13. —DANIEL AND THE LIONS
..........
14. —THE JEW JUDGES
..........................
Id.
Id.
The SECOND SERIES will soon be completed in six
instalments.
Other Pamphlets by G. W. Foote.
Secularism the True Philosophy of Life.
and a Defence
...
...
...
An Exposition
Atheism and Morality
........................................... 2d.
The Futility of Prayer....................................... '
... 2d.
Death’s Test: or Christian Lies about Dying Infidels. 2d.
Atheism and Suicide. (A reply to Alfred Tennyson—Paet
Laureate)...
...
...
..
" ...
The God Christians Swear By
.............................. 2d.
Was Jesus Insane P
................................................. Id.
London: FREETHOUGHT PUBLISHING COMPANY
28, Stonecutter Street, E.C.
�INTRODUCTION.
When an author has the fortune to be attacked by every
succeeding writer upon the same subject for upwards of a
century, and when his opinions, so far from being crushed out,
become more widely spread by each “ refutation,” it induces
a supicion that “ sophisms ” so constantly refuted may be
truisms after all. This has been notably the case with the
essay here reprinted. Since its first publication in 1748 it has
been the bête noire of Christian controversialists. Campbell,
IPhley, De Quincey, Chalmers, Whately, Babbage, Mansel,
Mozley, and a shoal of ministerial minnows sailing in the
wake of these theological Tritons, have felt it incumbent
upon them to refute the “ sophisms ” of the sceptic Hume
Yet no one will say that unbelief in the miraculous is upon
the decline.. On the contrary, never were Christians less
anxious to insist upon the supernatural elements of their
îehgion, and never more willing to seek reconcilements with
science ; never were there so many trained minds with perfect
confidence that the uniformity of nature has never been dis
turbed by coups d’état célestes.
In truth, Hume’s argument, though so constantly assailed,
has never been refuted at all. It has been misapprehended
and evaded, but it remains as unanswerable as that of Arch
bishop Tillotson against the real presence. And this, because
m point of fact—the terms being rightly understood—it is a
truism. John Stuart Mill well says: “Hume’s celebrated
principle that nothing is credible which is contradictory to
experience, or at variance with laws of nature, is merely this
very plain and harmless proposition, that whatever is contra
dictory to a complete induction is incredible. That such a
maxim as this should either be accounted a dangerous heresy,
or mistaken for a great and recondite truth, speaks ill for the
state of philosophical speculation on such subjects-.” (“System
of Logic,” book 3, chap, xxv., sec. 2.)
Few essays so brief, for it must be borne in mind that the
first part contains the argument complete in itself, have been
so persistently misunderstood. The whole school of Christian evidence writers have either argued as it were an à priori
argument against the possibility of miracles, or as if it were
an argument against testimony being received for wonders •
whereas it is neither the one nor the other. Principal Campbell, as Mill points out, considered it a complete answer to
*
Hume’s doctrine (that things are incredible which are contrary
to the uniform course of experience) that we do not disbelieve.
* “ Logic.” See the “ Three Essays,” p. 217.
�2
merely because the chances were against them, things in strict
conformity to the uniform course of experience. Yet no one
would call an unusual combination which was found by experi
ence to occur among the whole number of possible cases a.
miracle, save in the popular, indefinite style of speech which
is totally unfit for theological, and still more for logical, pur
poses. And here lies the gist of the whole misunderstanding.
Everyone knows that both etymologically and popularly the
word miracle is equivalent simply to a wonder. But Hume’s
argument is not directed against the occurrence of wonders,
prodigies or unprecedented events; though it offers a criterion
by which the value of their evidence can be judged. He was
not such a simpleton as to contend, or intend, that no testi
mony could be sufficient to add to our knowledge of the laws
of nature. His argument is based on the theological definition
of miracles as infractions of the laws of nature by a super
natural being or beings exterior to those laws.
The essay has done much to modify the views of theolo
gians, and they have since its time done their best to class
their miracles under’ “unknown laws.” Yet Canon Mozley,
certainly the ablest late defender of miracles, admits that
“ their evidential value depends entirely upon their deviating
from the order of nature.” A miracle in the theological sense
denotes not simply the counteraction of one natural law by
another, which is not opposed to experience, but the suppres
sion of the law of uniformity of cause and effect, which ex
perience shows to be universal, and in which all other laws
are included. As Hume puts it, unless there were an uniform
*
experience against any miraculous event, “the event would not
merit that appellation.” If, by some unknown law, persons
could, under given c onditions, be raised from the dead, such facts,
however wonderful, would take their place in the vast scheme
of nature, and no more be properly entitled supernatural than
any other. But such an event is classed as a miracle, as our
essayist says, “ because it has never been observed in any age
or country.”
The instance of the King of Siam rejecting accounts of ice
has often, foolishly enough, been quoted against Hume by
opponents who failed to notice the distinction between a dis
covery of the laws of nature and their suspension. If we could
be taken to a region where the dead rise at command with the
same certainty that water freezes when the temperature is
below a certain point the fact would be indubitable, but the
miracle would be gone. We cannot admit a proposition as a
law of nature and yet believe a fact in contradiction to it.
We must disbelieve the alleged fact, or believe that we are
See Mill’s “Essay on Theism,” p. 222.
�8
mistaken in admitting the supposed law. In gaming the fact
the miracle is lost; because to this, the supernatural nature or
the fact, all testimony is incompetent. Mr. Vv. H. Greg
pointed out that the assertion of a miracle being performed
*
involves three elements, a fact and two inferences. It predi
cates, first, that such an event took place; second, that it
was brought about by the act and will of the individual to
whom it is attributed ; third, that it could not have been pro
duced by natural means. The fact may have been conectly o served, and yet either or both of the inferences be unwarranted;
or either inference may be rendered unsound by the slightest
deviation from accuracy in the observation or statement ot
the fact. Nay, any new discovery in science may show that
the inference which has hitherto appeared quite irrefragable,
was, in fact, wholly unwarranted and incorrect.
But it has been said : Assume a supernatural power and the
antecedent improbability of supernatural visitations is re
moved. Paley says, “ In a word, once believe that there is a
God, and miracles are not incredible.’’t To this assertion
Mill has been thought to lend his. authority. He endorses
Hume’s argument only as substantiating that ‘‘ no evidence
can prove a miracle to anyone who did not previously believe
the existence of a being or beings with supernatural power ;
or who believes himself to have full proof that the character
of the Being whom he recognises, is inconsistent with his
having seen fit to interfere on the occasion in question. +
Now this statement is inadequate. The existence of.God, if He
be the Supreme Cause of the order of the universe, is rather an
additional difficulty to those who think that order was created
by Him and subsequently disturbed. The argument against
miracles rests on our experience of the order of nature ; and
is, therefore, equally valid whether a cause of that order be
assumed or not. For the only test of the will or way of work
ing of such a cause is to be found within the order itself.
Any interference with that order still has to be. proved by
testimony; and the question remains whether it is more
credible that men have been deceived, or that the laws of
nature have been disturbed?
This last is the aspect of the argument which comes home
to the popular mind. Every individual has experience that
men lie and make mistakes ; none that miracles occur. Expe
riment upon experiment; the records of generation after
* “ Creed of Christendom,” vol. ii., p. 136.
+ Evidences of Christianity. “Preparatory Considerations.”
+ “System of Logic,” Bk. 3, ch. xxv., sec. 2. Dr. Farrar’s abuse
of Mill’s reasoning is well exposed by the author of “ Supernatural
Religion,” Pt. 1, ch. iii.
�4
generation; the very stability of our life depends upon and
confirms the belief m the uniformity of law
“In the
case of miracles, then,” says Professor Tyndall, “ it behoves
us to understand the weight of the negative before we assign
a value to the positive ; to comprehend the protest of nature
before we attempt to measure with it the assertions of
men. *
Paley’s supposition of “ twelve men whose probity and good
sense I had well known,” who should be ready, one after
another, to be racked, burnt or strangled, rather than give up
the assertion that they had witnessed miracles, does not even
meeu the case. For how could it be shown that it was impos
sible tor these twelve men to be deceived? Twelve infallible
men w ould be as incredible as any miracle they were supposed
to assert. Paley’s reference is simply a disingenuous attempt
to. imply that twelve good witnesses testified to the Christian
miracles at the time and in the place where they are said to
have occurred, and that they suffered on this account. Whereas
not one single original witness is known ; nor can even any
early Christian be proved to have suffered for his belief in
miracles.
Professor Huxley, who,, in his admirable little book on
Hume, very captiously, as it seems to me, takes exception to
iiume s defining miracles in their theological sense, agrees
that his arguments on the matter of testimony resolve them
selves into a simple statement of the dictates of common
sense, which may be expressed in this canon: the more a
statement of fact conflicts with previous experience, the more
complete must be the evidence which is to justify us in be
lieving it. It is upon this principle that everyone carries on
the business of common life. “ If,” continues the Professor,
a man tells me he saw a piebald horse in Piccadilly, I believe
~.lm w^hout hesitation. The thing itself is likely enough, and
there is no imaginable motive for his deceiving me. But if
the.same person tells me he observed a zebra there, I might
hesitate a little about accepting his testimony, unless I were
well satisfied, not only as to his previous acquaintance with
zebras, but as to his powers and opportunities of observation
in the present case. If, however, my informant assured me
that he beheld a centaur trotting down that famous thoroughrare, I should emphatically decline to credit his statement; and
this even if he were the most saintly of men, and ready to
suffer martyrdom in support of his belief. In such a case I
could, of course, entertain no doubt of the good faith of the
witness; it would be only his competency, which, unfortunately,
* “ Fragments of Science,” “ On Miracles and Special Providence ”
vol. ii., p. 33. 1879.
’
�5
has very little to do with good faith or intensity of conviction,
which I should presume to call in question.”*
The sceptic being securely entrenched in the first part of the
essay, the second carries the war into the supernaturalists’
camp. With the confidence of a thorough student of human
nature and historian, Hume gives his conviction that there is
not in all history an wholly trustworthy testimony to mira
culous events. Huxley says on this passage (page 10 of this
edition):—“ These are grave assertions, but they are least
likely to be challenged by those who have made it their busi
ness to weigh evidence and to give their decision under a due
sense of the moral responsibility which they incur in so
doing.”
Miracles are only alleged to have happened among people
devoid of scientific information and critical spirit. The learned
author of “ Supernatural Religion,” in his chapter on “ The
Age of Miracles,’’gives abundant proof that the miracles now
credited arose in a time of the grossest superstition, among a
people believing in the every-day operations of angels and
demons, full of religious excitement, and prone to exaggera
tion. In an age of science, where no one expects miracles,
they do not occur, and most are ready to take as evidence of
superstition the belief in any others than those in faith of
which they have themselves been reared. The same silent
process which has destroyed the belief in fairies and witch
craft has undermined all other supernatural beliefs, and they
only await the application of criticism to be levelled with the
dust. It is true the universe remains a mystery. In one
sense every atom is a miracle. It is so because man’s faculties
are finite and the relations of nature infinite. But the mystery
ef nature affords no ground for belief in miraculous events,
the only testimony for which has been handed down from
superstitious and ill-informed ancestors. It is rather a reason
for abiding by the only light we have—the light which comes
from reason and observation. The part of a wise man is to
study and investigate, and “ proportion his belief to the
evidence.”
There being slight variations in the various editions of the
Essay, the present text has been carefully compared with all
those in the library of the British Museum.
* “English Men of Letters : Hume,” p. 134.
�ON MIRACLES.
-------- ♦--------
PART
I.
There is in Dr. Tillotson’s writings an argument against the real
presence, which is as concise, and elegant, and strong as any
argument can possibly be supposed against a doctrine that is
so little worthy of a serious refutation. It is acknowledged on
all hands, says that learned prelate, that the authority, either
of the scripture or of tradition, is founded merely in the testi
mony of the apostles, who were eye-witnesses to those miracles
of our Savior, by which he proved his divine mission. Our
evidence, then, for the truth of the Christian religion is less
than the evidence for the truth of our senses ; because, even in
the first authors of our religion, it was no greater; and it is
evident it must diminish in passing from them to their disciples;
nor can any one be so certain of the truth of their testimony,
as of the immediate object of his senses. But a weaker evidence
can never destroy a stronger; and therefore, were the doctrine
of the real presence ever so clearly revealed in scripture, it
were directly contrary to the rules of just reasoning to give
our assent to it. It contradicts sense, though both the scripture
and tradition, on which it is supposed to be built, carry not
such evidence with them as sense, when they are considered
merely as external evidences, and are not brought home to
every one’s breast by the immediate operation of the Holy
Spirit.
Nothing is so convenient as a decisive argument of this kind,
which must at least silence the most arrogant bigotry and
superstition, and free us from their impertinent solicitations.
I flatter myself, that I have discovered an argument of a like
nature, which, if just, will, with the wise and learned, be an
everlasting check to all kinds of superstitious delusion, and
consequently, will be useful as long as the world endures. For
so long, I presume, will the accounts of miracles and prodigies
be found in all history, sacred and profane.
Though experience be our only guide in reasoning concerning
matters of fact; it must be acknowledged that this guide is
not altogether infallible, but in some cases is apt to lead us
into errors and mistakes. One, who, in our climate, should
expect better weather in any week of June than in one of
December, would reason justly, and conformably to experience;
but it is certain that he may happen, in the event, to find
himself mistaken. However, we may observe, that, in such
a case, he would have no cause to complain of experience;
�7
because it commonly informs us beforehand of the uncertainty,
by that contrariety of events, which we may learn from a
diligent observation. All effects follow not with like certainty
from their supposed causes. Some events are found, in all
countries and all ages, to have been constantly conjoined to
gether : Others are found to have been more variable, and
sometimes to disappoint our expectations; so that, in our
reasonings concerning matter of fact, there are all imaginable
degrees of assurance, from the highest certainty to the lowest
species of moral evidence.
A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence.
In such conclusions as are founded on an infallible experience,
he expects the event with the last degree of assurance, and
regards his past experience as a full proof of the future
existence of that event.
In other cases he proceeds with
more caution: He weighs the opposite experiments: He
considers which side is supported by the greatest number of
experiments: To that side he inclines with doubt and hesi
tation ; and when at last he fixes his judgment, the evidence
exceeds not what we properly
probability. All probability,
then, supposes an opposition of experiments and observations;
where the one side is found to overbalance the other, and to
produce a degree of evidence proportioned to the superiority.
A hundred instances or experiments on one side, and fifty
on another, afford a very doubtful expectation of any event;
though a hundred uniform experiments, with only one that is
contradictory, reasonably beget a pretty strong degree of
assurance. In all cases, we must balance the opposite experi
ments, where they are opposite, and deduct the smaller number
from the greater, in order to know the exact force of the
superior evidence.
To apply these principles to a particular instance ; we may
observe that there is no species of reasoning more common,
more useful, and even necessary to human life, than that
derived from the testimony of men, and the reports of eye
witnesses and spectators. This species of reasoning, perhaps,
one may deny to be founded on the relation of cause and
effect. I shall not dispute about a word. It will be sufficient
to observe, that our assurance in any argument of this kind is
derived from no other principle than our observation of the
veracity of human testimony, and of the usual conformity of
facts to the reports of witnesses. It being a general maxim,
that no objects have any discoverable connexion together, and
that all the inferences which we can draw from one to another
are founded merely on our experience of their constant and
regular conjunction; it is evident that we ought not to make
an exception to this maxim in favor of human testimony,
whose connexion with any events seems, in itself, as liitJo
�8
necessary as any other. Were not the memory tenacious to a
certain degree ; had not men commonly an inclination to
truth and a principle of probity; were they not sensible to
snanie wh.cn detected in a falsehood : TiVere not these, I say,
discovered by experience to be qualities inherent in ’human
natuie, we should never repose the least confidence in human
testimony. A man delirious, or noted for falsehood and villainy
has no manner of authority with us.
’
And as the evidence, derived from witnesses and human
testimony, is founded on past experience, so it varies with
the experience, and is reg'arded either as a proof or a proba
bility according as the conjunction between any particular kind
of report and any kind of objects, has been found to be constant
or variable. There are a number of circumstances to be taken
into consideration in all judgments of this kind; and the
ultimate standard, by which we determine all disputes that
may arise concerning them, is always derived from experience
and observation. . Where this experience is not entirely uni
form on any side, it is attended with an unavoidable contrariety
in our judgments, and with the same opposition and mutual
destruction of arguments as in every other kind of evidence.
We frequently hesitate concerning the reports of others. We
balance the opposite circumstances which cause tiny doubt or
uncertainty; and when we discover a superiority on any side,
we incline to it; but still with a diminution of assurance in
proportion to the force of its antagonist.
This contrariety of evidence, in the present case, may be
derived from several different causes; from the opposition of
contrary testimony, from the character or number of the wit
nesses, from the manner of their delivering their testimony,
or from the union of all these circumstances. We entertain a
suspicion concerning any matter of fact when the witnesses
contradict each other, when they are but few or of a doubtful
character, when they have an interest in what they affirm,
when they deliver their testimony with doubt and hesitation’
or, on the contrary, with too violent asseverations. There are
many other particulars of the same kind, which may diminish
or destroy the force of any argument derived from human
testimony.
Suppose, for instance, that the fact which the testimony
endeavors to establish partakes of the extraordinary and the
marvellous, in that case, the evidence resulting from the testi
mony admits of a diminution greater or less in proportion as
the fact is more or less unusual. The reason why we place
any credit in witnesses and historians is not from any con
nexion, which we perceive a priori, between testimony and
reality, but because we are accustomed to find a conformity
between them. But when the fact attested is such a one as
�9
has seldom fallen under our observation, here is a contest of
two opposite experiences; of which the one destroys the othc-,
-as far . as its force goes, and the superior can only operate on
the mind by the force which remains. The very same principle
of experience, which gives us a certain degree of assurance in
the testimony of witnesses, gives us also, in this case, another
'degree of assurance against the fact which they endeavor to
establish; from which contradiction there necessarily arise a
•counterpoise, and mutual destruction of belief and authority.
“ I should not believe such a story were it told me by Cato ; ”
was a proverbial , saying in Rome, even during the lifetime
of that philosophical patriot (1). The incredibility of a fact,
at was allowed, might invalidate so great an authority.
The Indian prince who refused to believe the first relations
concerning the effects of frost reasoned justly, and it naturally
required very strong testimony to engage his assent to facts
which, arose from a state of nature with which he was un
acquainted, and bore so little analogy to those events of which
he had had constant and uniform experience. Though they
were not contrary to his experience, they were not conform
able to it (2).
But in order to increase the probability against the testi
mony of witnesses, let us suppose that the fact which they
n,inrm, instead of being only marvellous, is really miraculous,
suppose also, that the testimony, considered apart and in
itself, amounts to an. entire proof ; in that case there is proof
against proof, of which the strongest must prevail, but still
with a diminution of its force, in proportion to that of its
antagonist.
A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature; and as a firm
and unalterable experience has established these laws, the
proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact is
as entire as any argument from experience can possibly ’be
imagined Why is it more than probable that all men must
y?e»
iea(l cannot of itself remain suspended in the air •
that fire consumes wood, and is extinguished by water; unless
it be that these events are found agreeable to the laws of
nature, and there is required a violation of these laws, or in
other words, a miracle to prevent them? Nothing is esteemed
a miracle if it ever happen in the common course of nature
It is no miracle that a man seemingly in good health should
•die on a sudden : because such a kind of death, though more
unusual than any other, has yet been frequently observed to
happen. But it is a miracle that a dead man should come to
-Ute; because that has never been observed in any age or countrv
There must, therefore, be an uniform experience against every
miraculous event, otherwise the event would not merit that
appellation. And as an uniform experience amounts to a proof
�10
there is here a direct and full proof from the nature of the
fact against the existence of any miracle; nor can such a proof
be destroyed or the miracle rendered credible by an opposite
proof, which is superior (3).
.
The plain consequence is (and it is a general maxim worthy
of our attention), “ That no testimony is sufficient to establish
a miracle unless the testimony be of such a kind that its false
hood would be more miraculous than the fact which it en
deavors to establish: And even in that case there is a mutual
destruction of arguments, and the superior only gives us an
assurance suitable to that degree of force which remains after
deducting the inferior.” When anyone tells me that he saw
a dead man restored to life, I immediately consider with myself
whether it be more probable that this person should either
deceive or be deceived, or that the fact which he relates, should
really have happened. I weigh the one miracle against the
other; and, according to the superiority which I discover, I
pronounce my decision, and always reject the greater miracle.
If the falsehood of his testimony would be more miraculous
than the event which he relates; then, and not till then, can
he pretend to command my belief or opinion.
PART II.
In the foregoing reasoning we have supposed that the testi
mony upon which a miracle is founded may possibly amount to
an entire proof, and that the falsehood of that testimony would
be a real prodigy : But it is easy to show that we have been
a oreat deal too liberal in our concession, and that there never
was a miraculous event established on so full an evidence.
*
For first, there is not to be found in all history any miracle
attested by a sufficient number of men, of such unquestioned
yood sense, education, and learning as to secure us against all
delusion in themselves; of such undoubted integrity as to place
them beyond all suspicion of any design to deceive others; of
such credit and reputation in the eyes of mankind as to have
a o-reat deal to lose in case of being detected in any falsehood;
and at the same time attesting facts, performed m such a
public manner and in so celebrated a part of. the world, as to
render the detection unavoidable: All which circumstances are
requisite to give us a full assurance in the testimony of men.
Secondly. We may observe in human nature a principle
which, if strictly examined, will be. found to dimmish ex
tremely the assurance which we might have from human
testimony in any kind of prodigy. The maxim by which we
commonly conduct ourselves in our reasonings, is, that the
objects, of which we have no experience, resemble those of
* The 1750 edition inserts: “ In any history.”
�11
which we have; that what we have found to be most usual is
always most probable; and that where there is an opposition
of arguments, we ought to give the preference to such of them
as are founded on the greatest number of past observations.
But though, in proceeding by this rule, we readily reject any
fact which is unusual and incredible in an ordinary degree;
yet in advancing farther, the mind observes not always the
same rule, but when anything is affirmed utterly absurd and
miraculous, it rather the more readily admits such a fact, upon
account of that very circumstance which ought to destroy all
its authority. The passion of surprise and wonder, arising from
miracles, being an agreeable emotion, gives a sensible tendency
towards the belief of those events from which it is derived.
And this goes so far, that even those who cannot enjoy this
pleasure immediately, nor can believe those miraculous events of
which they are informed, yet love to partake of the satisfaction
at second-hand or by rebound, and place a pride and delight
in exciting the admiration of others.
With what greediness are the miraculous accounts of
travellers received, their descriptions of sea and land mon
sters, their relations of wonderful adventures, strange men,
and uncouth manners ! But if the spirit of religion join itself
to the love of wonder, there is an end of common-sense, and
human testimony, in these circumstances, loses all pretensions
to authority. A religionist may be an enthusiast, and imagine
he sees what has no reality : He may know his narration to be
fal3e, and yet persevere in it with the best intentions in the
world for the sake of promoting so holy a cause: Or even where
this delusion has no place, vanity, excited by so strong a tempta
tion, operates on him more powerfully than on the rest of
mankind in any other circumstances; and self-interest with
equal force. His auditors may not have, and commonly have
not, sufficient judgment to canvass his evidence : What
judgment they have, they renounce by principle, in these
sublime and mysterious subjects : Or if they were ever so
willing to employ it, passion and a heated imagination disturb
the regularity of its operations. Their credulity increases his
impudence ; and his impudence overpowers their credulity.
Eloquence, when in its highest pitch, leaves little room for
reason or reflection, but addressing itself entirely to the fancy
or the affections, captivates the willing hearers, and subdues
their understandings. Happily, this pitch it seldom attains.
But what a Cicero or a Demosthenes could scarcely operate
over a Roman or Athenian audience, every Capuchin, every
itinerant or stationary teacher, can perform over the generality
of mankind, and in a higher degree, by touching such gross
and vulgar passions (4).
Thirdly. It forms a very strong presumption against all
�12
supernatural and miraculous relations, that they are observed
chiefly to abound among ignorant and barbarous nations; or if
a civilised people has ever given admission to any of them,
that people will be found to have received them from ignorant
and barbarous ancestors, who transmitted them with that in
violable sanction and authority which always attend received
opinions. When we peruse the first histories of all nations
we are apt to imagine ourselves transported into some new
world, where the w’hole frame of nature is disjointed and every
element performs its operations in a different manner from
what it does at present. Battles, revolutions, pestilence,
famine, and death, are never the effects of those natural
causes which we experience. Prodigies, omens, oracles,
judgments, quite obscure the few natural events that are
intermingled with them. But as the former grow thinner
every page, in proportion as we advance nearer the enlightened
ages of science and knowledge, we soon learn that there is
nothing mysterious or supernatural in the case, but that all
proceeds from the usual propensity of mankind towards the
marvellous, and that, though this inclination may at inter
vals receive a check from sense and learning, it can never
thoroughly be extirpated from human nature.
‘‘ It is strange,” a judicious reader is apt to say upon the peru
sal of these wonderful historians, “that such prodigious events
never happen in our days.” But it is nothing strange, I hope,
that men should lie in all ages. You must surely have seen
instances enow of that frailty. You have yourself heard
many such marvellous relations started, which, being treated
with scorn by all the wise and judicious, have at last been
abandoned even by the vulgar. Be assured, that those re
nowned lies which have spread and flourished to such a
monstrous height, arose from like beginnings, but being sown
in a more proper soil, shot up at last into prodigies almost
equal to those which they relate.
It was a wise policy in that false prophet, Alexander, who,
though now forgotten, was once so famous, to lay the first
scene of his impostures in Paphlagonia, where, as Lucian tells
us, the people were extremely ignorant and stupid, and ready
to swallow even the grossest delusion. People at a distance,
who are weak enough to think the matter at all worthy inquiry,
have no opportunity of receiving better information. The
stories come magnified to them by a hundred circumstances.
Fools, are industrious in propagating the imposture; while
the wise and learned are contented, in general, to deride its
absurdity, without informing themselves of the particular facts
by which it .may be distinctly refuted. And thus the impostor
above-mentioned was enabled to proceed from his ignorant
Paphlagonians to the enlisting of votaries, even among the
�13
Grecian philosophers and men of the most eminent rank and
distinction in Rome : Nay, could engage the attention of that
sage emperor, Marcus Aurelius, so far as to make him trust
the success of a military expedition to his delusive prophecies.
The advantages are so great, of starting an imposture among
an ignorant people, that even though the delusion should be
too gross to impose on the generality of them—which, though
seldom, is sometimes the case—it has a much better chance of suc
ceeding in remote countries, than if the first scene had been laid
in a city renowned for arts and knowledge. The most ignorant
and barbarous of these barbarians carry the report abroad.
None of their countrymen have large correspondence or
sufficient credit and authority to contradict and beat down
the delusion. Men’s inclination to the marvellous has full
opportunity to display itself. And thus a story, which is
universally exploded in the place where it was first started, shall
pass for certain at a thousand miles distance. But had Alex
ander fixed his residence at Athens, the philosophers of that
renowned mart of learning had immediately spread throughout
the whole Roman empire, their sense of the matter; which, being
supported by so great authority, and displayed by all the force of
reason and eloquence, had entirely opened the eyes of mankind.
It is true, Lucian, passing by chance through Paphlagonia, had
an opportunity of performing this good office. But, though much
to be wished, it does not always happen, that every Alexander
meets with a Lucian, ready to expose and detect his im
postures (5).
I may add as a fourth reason which diminishes the authority
of prodigies, that there is no testimony for any, even those
•which have not been expressly detected, that is not opposed
by an infinite number of witnesses ; so that not only the miracle
destroys the credit of the testimony, but even the testimony
destroys itself. To make this the better understood, let us
consider, that in matters of religion, whatever is different is
contrary, and that it is impossible the religions of ancient Rome,
of Turkey, of Siam, and of China should, all of them, be
established on any solid foundation. Every miracle, there
fore, pretended to have been wrought in any of these religions
(and all of them abound in miracles), as its direct scope is
to establish the particular system to which it is attributed; so
has it the same force, though more indirectly, to overthow every
other system. In destroying a rival system, it likewise destroys
the credit of those miracles on which that system was
established ; so that all the prodigies of different religions are
to be regarded as contrary facts, and the evidences of these
prodigies, whether weak or strong, as opposite to each other.
According to this method of reasoning, when we believe any
miracle of Mahomet or any of his successors, we have for our
�14
warrant the testimony of a few barbarous Arabians : And on
the other hand, we are to regard the authority of Titus Livius,
Plutarch, Tacitus, and, in short, of all the authors and witnesses,
Grecian, . Chinese, and Roman Catholic, who have related any
miracle in their. particular religion; I say, we are to regard
theii testimony in . the same light as if they had mentioned
that .Mahometan miracle, and had in express terms contradicted
it, with the same certainty as they have for the miracles they
relate. This argument may appear over subtle and refined,
but is not in reality different from the reasoning of a judge
who supposes that the credit of two witnesses maintaining a
crime against any one is destroyed by the testimony of two
others who affirm him to have been two hundred leagues dis
tant, at the same instant when the crime is said to have been
committed.
One of the best attested miracles in all profane history is
that .which Tacitus reports of Vespasian, who cured a blind
man in Alexandria by means of his spittle, and a lame man by
the mere touch of his foot; in obedience to a vision of the god
Serapis, who had enjoined them to have recourse to the
Emperor for these miraculous cures. The story may be
seen in that fine historian (6); where every circumstance
seems to add weight to the testimony, and might be dis
played at large with all the force of argument and eloquence
if anyone were now concerned to enforce the evidence of that
exploded and idolatrous superstition. The gravity, solidity,
age, and probity of so great an emperor, who, through the
whole course of his life conversed in a familiar manner with
his. friends and. courtiers, and never affected those extra
ordinary airs of divinity assumed by Alexander and Demetrius:
The historian, a cotemporary writer noted for candor and
veracity, and withal the greatest and most penetrating genius
perhaps of all antiquity; and so free from any superstition and
credulity that he even lies under the contrary imputation of
Atheism and pro.faneness : The persons, from whose testimony
he related.the miracle, of established character for judgment
and veracity, as we may well presume; eye-witnesses of the
fact, and confirming their verdict after the Flavian family
were despoiled of the empire, and could no longer give any
reward as the price of a lie. TJtrumque, qui interfuere, nunc
quoque memorant, postquam nullum mendacio pretium. To which,
if we add the public nature of the facts as related, it will ap
pear that no evidence can well be supposed stronger for so
gross and. so palpable a falsehood.
There is also a memorable story related by Cardinal de
Betz, which may well deserve our consideration. When
that intriguing politician fled into Spain to avoid the perse
cution of his enemies he passed through Saragossa, the capital
�15
of Arragon, where he was shown
^n^was well known
had served seven years as a doo_ - p ,
devotions
to everybody in
at that chnrch. He had bee
ri1bbin" of holy oil upon,
a leg; but recovered that limb by the rub
Jwo leUgiP’Thids mirade X vouched by all the canons3 of the
the relator was also cotemporary.to the&nius;
S7X°x^":"r<; i :«»:
r»e“ardS»
-to give any credit to it ^d conseq
CO]lsidered justly,
of anv concurrence m the holy traua.
f+li..Atl,re
“ ? Z accSly to ^■s^)rro^^^ree''^S^'^OQfr SavSy^and
its falsehood through all the °irc^s^an
k
Y
£
mediately present, by reason of the bigotry, 1g°^^0C™0^
ss-sssaaxgs
by any human testimony, was more propeily a subject o
^Tteh^XieXalabreater number of miracles ascribed
to o“^E those which were lately ;
to have been
wrought in France upon the tomb of Abbe Pans,
ta
Jansenist, with whose sanctity the people ^re s° 1on deluclecL
Whp pnri-no- of the sick, giving hearing to the deal ana si&m io
S bhnd wire everywhere talked of as the usual effects of
Iw hSv sepulchre. But what is more extraordinary; many
oflh^miraclto were immediately proved upon the spot^before
iudo-es of unquestioned integrity, attested y
rnoqf
Stand distinction. in a learned Xid N^r is ftis alb
l^SX^ofSem w^pSisSd and disperse'd everywhere ;
nor were the Jesuits though a learned body supP°rted
in
oivil magistrate, and determined enemies to those opimonsi
whose favor the miracles were said to h^7^eei».g^ll we
.able distinctly to refute or detect them ( ).
�16
XIS>of^fiSp°A±Z?i1Ce5 agreeiag t0 the “r-
tb?utao?tnSie.U^ jusf; bTu?e some huma“ testimony has-
distance have been able to determine between them ? The
contrariety is equally strong between the miraclesTreated bv
or
th“e deUYered by MariaUa’ Me'
country, his family, Or himself, or in any other way§strikes in
with his natural inclinations and propensities
But what
greater temptation than to appear a missionary, a prophet an
d±Zad0^?m uaVeU? Wh0^uld not encounter man?
ter ?°%r ?fdh^U1pV inporde.r to attaiu so sublime a charac°
?y t^e help of vaW and a heated imagination ainf? the 5? made a ?onvert of himself and entered^seriously
into the delusion; who ever scruples to make use of pious
frauds m support of so holy and meritorious a cause ?
lhe smallest spark may here kindle into the greatest flame
because the materials are always prepared for it. The avicbum
genus aurwularum(8), the gazing populace, receive greedily
motesUwondSmatl°n’ whatever soothes superstition, and prol
St?EeSi ?f this nature have in a11 ages been
detected and exploded in their infancy? How many more have
been celebrated for a time, and have afterwards sunk into
negiect and oblivion? Where such reports, therefore, fly
about, the solution of the phenomenon is obvious, and we iudge
m conformity to regular experience and observation when we
account for it by the known and natural principles of credulity
and delusion. And shall we, rather than have a resource to so.
natural a solution allow of a miraculous violation of the most
established laws of nature ?
i I need not mention the difficulty of detecting a falsehood in
any private or even public history, at the time and place where
it is said to happen, much more where the scene is removed to
ever so small a distance. Even a court of judicature, with all
�17
the authority, accuracy, and judgment, which they can employ,
find themselves often at a loss to distinguish between truth
and falsehood in most recent actions. But the matter never
comes to any issue if trusted to the common method of alter
cation and debate and flying rumors ; especially when men’s
passions have taken part on either side.
In the infancy of new religions the wise and learned com
monly esteem the mattei- too inconsiderable to deserve their
attention or regard. And when afterwards they would will
ingly detect the cheat in order to undeceive the deluded multi
tude, the season is now past, and the records and witnesses, which
might clear up the matter, have perished beyond recovery.
No means of detection remain but those which must be
drawn from the very testimony itself of the reporters : And
these, though always sufficient with the judicious and know
ing, are commonly too fine to fall under the comprehension of
the vulgar.
_ Upon the whole, then, it appears that no testimony for any
kind of miracle has ever amounted to a probability much less
*
to a proof; and that, even supposing it amounted to a proof,
it would be opposed by another proof; derived from the very
nature of the fact which it would endeavor to establish. It is
experience only, which gives authority to human testimony;
and it is the same experience, which assures us of the laws
of nature. When, therefore, these two kinds of experience are
contrary, we have nothing to do but subtract the one from
the other, and embrace an opinion either on one side or the
other with that assurance which arises from the remainder.
But according to the principle here explained, this subtraction
with regard to all popular religions, amounts to an entire
annihilation; and therefore we may establish it as a maxim that
no human testimony can have such force as to prove a miracle
and make it a just foundation for any such system of
religion (9).
I am the better pleased with this method of reasoning, as X
think it may serve to confound those dangerous friends or
disguised enemies to the Ghistian religion, who have under
taken to defend it by the principles of human reason. Our
most holy religion is founded on Faith, not on reason, and it
is a sure method of exposing it to put it to such a trial, as it is
by no means fitted to endure. To make this more evident, let us
examine those miracles related in scripture, and not to lose our
selves in too wide a field, let us confine ourselves to such as we
find in the Pentateuch, which we shall examine according to
the principles of these pretended Christians, not as the word
or testimony of God himself, but as the production of a mere
* The first two editions read; “ Can ever possibly amount.'
�18
human writer and historian. Here, then, we are first to con
sider a book presented to us by a barbarous and ignorant
people, written in an age when they were still more barbarous
•and in all probability long after the facts which it relates,
corroborated by no concurring testimony, and resembling those
fabulous accounts which every nation gives of its origin.
Upon reading this book, we find it full of prodigies and
miracles. It gives an account of a state of the world and
of human nature entirely different from the present: Of our
fall from that state : Of the age of man extended to near a
thousand years : Of the destruction of the world by a deluge :
•Of the arbitrary choice of one people as the favorites of heaven
and that people the countrymen of the author: Of their deliver
ance from bondage by prodigies the most astonishing imagin
able : I desire anyone to lay his hand upon his heart and after
serious consideration declare whether he thinks that the false
hood of such a book, supported by such a testimony, would be
more extraordinary and miraculous than all the miracles it
relates ; which is, however, necessary to make it be received
according to the measures of probability above established.
What we have said of miracles may be applied without any
variation to prophecies; and indeed all prophecies are real
miracles, and as such only, can be admitted as proofs of any
revelation. If it did not exceed the capacity of human nature
to foretel future events, it would be absurd to employ any
prophecy as an argument for a divine mission or authority
from heaven; so that, upon the whole, we may conclude that
the Christian religion not only was at first attended with
miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any
reasonable person without one. Mere reason is insufficient to
•convince us of its veracity: And whoever is moved by Faith to
assent to it is conscious of a continued miracle in his own
person, which subverts all the principles of his understanding,
and gives him a determination to believe what is most con
trary to custom and experience.
NOTES.
(1) Plutarch, in vita Catonis Min. 19.
*(2) No Indian, it is evident, could have experience that water
did not freeze in cold climates. This, is placing. nature in a
situation quite unknown to him, and it is impossible for him
to tell a priori what will result from it. It is making a new
experiment, the consequence of which is always uncertain.
One may sometimes conjecture from analogy what will follow;
but still this is but conjecture. And it must be confessed, that
in the present case of freezing, the event follows contrary to
�19
Ihe rules of analogy, and is such, as a rational Indian would
not look for. The operations of cold upon water are not
Gradual according to the degrees of cold, but. whenever it
comes to the freezing point the water passes m a moment
from the utmost liquidity to perfect hardness. Such an event
therefore may be denominated extraordinary, and requires a
pretty strong testimony to render it credible to people in a
warm climate ; but still it is not miraudous., nor contrary to
uniform experience of the course of nature in cases where all
the circumstances are the same. The inhabitants of Sumatra
have always seen water fluid in their own climate,.and the
freezing of their rivers ought to be deemed a prodigy: but
they never saw water in Muscovy during the winter; and
therefore they cannot reasonably be positive what would there
be the consequence.
(3) Sometimes an event may not, in itself, seem, to be con
trary to the laws of nature, and yet, if it were real, it might, by
reason of some circumstances, be denominated a miracle, be
cause, in fact, it is contrary to these laws. Thus, if a person,
claiming a divine authority, should command a sick person to
be well, a healthful man to fall down dead, the clouds to pour
rain, the winds to blow—in short, should order many natural
events which immediately, follow upon his commandthese
might justly be esteemed miracles, because they arereally, in this
case, contrary to the laws of nature. For if any suspicion remain
that the event and command concurred by accident there is no
miracle and no transgression of the laws of nature. If this
suspicion be removed, there is evidently a miracle, and a trans
gression of these laws; because nothing can be more contrary
to nature than that the voice or command of a man should have
such an influence. A miracle may be accurately, defined, a
transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the
Deity, or by the interposition of some invisible agent. A miracle
may either be discoverable by men or not. This alters not its
nature and essence. The raising of a house or ship into the
air is a visible miracle. The raising of a feather, when the
wind wants ever so little of a force requisite.for that purpose,
is as real a miracle, though not so sensible with regard to us.
(4) The many instances of forged miracles, and prophecies,
and supernatural events, which, in all ages, have either been
detected by contrary evidence, or which detect themselves by
their absurdity, mark sufficiently the strong propensity of
man kind to the extraordinary and the marvellous., and ought
reasonably to beget a suspicion against all relations of this
kind. This is our natural way of thinking, even with regard
to the most common and most credible events. i^For instance,
there is no kind of report which rises so easily and spreads so
quickly, especially in country places and provincial towns, as
�20
those concerning marriages; insomuch that two young persons’
n^Sr1!,00^1011 “?ver see each Other twice, but thePwTole
“fh’kborhood immediately join them together. The pleasure
so interesting, the^ntefiSenceAnd
of r.6 • 1Ug k Plece reporters of it, spread of propagating it and
being the first
hSeXS1 ¿ST
“,r “of rnse
evidenc? Bn „S
confirmed by some greater
inel^n fi. D noV?6 Sfme Pa?sions, and others still stronger
ino- tv'+p e generality of mankind to the believing and reportm&ade^V116 Sre&teSt vebemence and assurance all religious
(5)It may here perhaps be objected that I proceed rashlv
Mvenrf mJ motions of
-erely froâ the aecS
given ot Mm by Lucian, a professed enemy. It were indeed,
foil 6 Wisbed tbat some of the. accounts published by his
contSSbSiaCCO^P neS had remained- The oppositio? and
as^X hvZf? J6 Character aHd conduct of the same man
Hfe m^ohbwnrï - ?b°r aU
as strong’ even in common
two ZÎin T * mSe ^l1^0118 matters, as that betwixt any
two men m the world—betwixt Alexander and St. Paul for
instance. See a letter to Gilbert West, Esq., on the conver
sion and apostlesMp of St. Paul.
4
oonver
aoSuSÏ’X VespP
Suetoaius
“““IF the seme
ri„^j^^SA%°^:jra8yr^ei1 by Mons. deMontgeron, counsellor
or judge of the Parliament of Paris, a man of figure and cha
racter, who was also a martyr to the cause, and is now said to
be somewhere m a dungeon on account of his book.
/here is another book, in three volumes (called “Recueil des
Miracles de 1 Abbe Pans ”), giving an account of many of these
miracles and accompanied with prefatory discourses, which
XiVerp ^Iel1 Wri-jt.en-1 Tbere runs’ however, through the
whole of these a ridiculous comparison between the miracles
SaV-f an<l th?S%0f tbe Abbé’ therein it is asserted
that the evidence for the latter is equal to that for the former •
Übu
etesfr-onyof men could ever be put in the balance
with that of God himself, who conducted the pen of the
inspired writers. If these writers, indeed, were to be con
sidered merely as human testimony, the French author is very
moderate m his comparison, since he might, with some appear
ance of reason, pretend that the Jansenist miracles much
surpass the others in evidence and authority. The following
circumstances are drawn from authentic papers inserted in the
above-mentioned book.
Many of the miracles of Abbé Paris were proved immediately
by witnesses before the officiality or bishop’s court at Paris»
under the eyes of Cardinal Noailles, whose character for in
tegrity and capacity was never contested even by his enemies»
�21
His successor in the archbishopric was an enemy to the
Jansenists, and for that reason promoted to the see by the
•Court. Yet twenty-two rectors or cures of Paris, with infinite
earnestness, press him to examine those miracles, which they
assert to be known to the whole world, and indisputably certain:
But he wisely forbore.
The Molinist party had tried to discredit these miracles in
-one instance, that of Madamoiselle le Franc. But besides that,
their proceedings in many respects are the most irregular in the
world, particularly in citing only a few of the Jansenist’s wit
nesses, whom they tampered with: Besides this, I say they
•soon found themselves overwhelmed by a cloud of new witnesses
one hundred and twenty in number, most of them persons of
•credit and substance in Paris, who gave oath for the miracle.
This was accompanied with a solemn and earnest appeal to the
Parliament. But the Parliament were forbidden by authority to
meddle in the affair. It was at last observed that where men
are heated by zeal and enthusiasm there is no degree of human
testimony so strong as may not be procured for the greatest
absurdity : And those who will be so silly as to examine the
affair by that medium, and seek particular flaws in the testi
mony, are almost sure to be confounded. It must be a miser
able imposture indeed that does not prevail in that contest.
All who have been in France about that time have heard of
the great reputation of Mons. Heraut, the Lieutenant de Police,
whose vigilance, penetration, activity and extensive intelligence
Fave been much talked of. This magistrate, who by the nature
of his office is almost absolute, was invested with full powers
on purpose to suppress or discredit these miracles; and he
frequently seized immediately and examined the witnesses
.and subjects of them; but never could reach anything satis
factory against them.
In the case of Madamoiselle Thibaut he sent the famous
■de Sylvia to examine her, whose evidence is very curious. The
physician declares that it was impossible she could have been
so ill as was proved by witnesses, because it was impossible
she could in so short a time have recovered so perfectly as he
found her. He reasoned like a man of sense from natural
•causes ; but the opposite party told him that the whole was a
miracle, and that his evidence was the very best proof of it.
The Molinists were in a sad dilemma. They dared not
assert the absolute insufficiency of human evidence to prove a
miracle. They were obliged to say that these miracles were
wrought by witchcraft and the devil. But they were told that
this was the resource of the Jews of old.
No Jansenist was ever embarrassed to account for the
cessation of the miracles, when the churchyard was shut up
by the king’s edict. It was the touch of the tomb which
�22
produced these extraordinary effects ; and when no one could
approach the tomb, no effects could be expected. God indeed
could have thrown down the walls in a moment; but he is
master of his own graces and works, and it belongs not to us
to account for them. He did not throw down the walls of
every city like those of Jericho on the sounding of the rams’’
horns, nor break up the prison of every apostle like that of
St. Paul.
No less a man than the Due de Chatillon, a duke and peer
of France of the highest rank and family, gives evidence of a
miraculous cure performed upon a servant of his, who had
lived several years in his house with a visible and palpable
infirmity.
I shall conclude with observing that no clergy are more
celebrated for strictness of life and manners than the secular
clergy of France, particularly the rectors or cures of Paris
who bear testimony to these impostures.
The learning, genius, and probity of the gentlemen, and the
austerity of the nuns of Port Royal, have been much celebrated
all over Europe. Yet they all give evidence for a miracle
wrought on the niece of the famous Pascal, whose sanctity of
life, as well as extraordinary capacity, is well known. The
famous Racine gives an account of this miracle in his famous
history of Port-Royal, and fortifies it with all the proofs which
a multitude of nuns, priests, physicians and men of the world,
all of them of undoubted credit, could bestow upon it. Several
men of letters, particularly the Bishop of Tournay, thought
this miracle so certain, as to employ it in the refutation of
Atheists and Freethinkers. The Queen-Regent of France,
who was extremely prejudiced against the Port-Royal, sent
hei’ own physician to examine the miracle, who returned an
absolute convert.. In short, the supernatural cure was so uncontestable that it saved for a time that famous monastery
from the ruin with which it was threatened by the Jesuits.
Had it been a cheat, it had certainly been detected by such
sagacious and powerful antagonists and must have hastened
the ruin of the contrivers. Our divines who can build up a
formidable castle from suoh despicable materials, what a pro
digious fabric could they have reared from these and many
other circumstances which I have not mentioned!—How oft
would the great names of Pascal, Racine, Arnaud, Nicole, have
resounded in our ears ? But if they be wise, they had better
adopt the miracle as being more worth a thousand times than
all the rest of their collection. Besides, it may serve very
much to their purpose. For that miracle was really per
formed by the touch of an authentic holy prickle of the holy
thorn, which composed the holy crown, which, etc.
(8) Lucret, iv., 594.
�('9'1 I beg the limitations here made may be remarked when
I say that a miracle can never be proved so as to be the founda
tion of a system of religion. For I own, that otherwise there
may possibly be miracles or violations of the usual course of
nature, of such a kind as to admit of proof from human testi
mony, though perhaps it will be impossible to find any such in
51 ¿he recordsP of history. Thus, suppose all authors m all
languages agree that from the 1st of January 1600, there was
a total darkness over the whole earth for eight days: SuPPos®
that the tradition of this extraordinary event is still strong and
lively among the people, that all travellers who return from
foreign countries bring us accounts , of the same tradition
without the least variation or contradiction: It¡is evident that
our present philosophers, instead of doubting that fact,
to receive it for certain, and ought to search for the causes
whence it might be derived. The decay, corruption, and dis
solution of nature, is an event rendered probable by so many
analogies, that any phsenomenon which seems to have a
tendency towards that catastrophe, comes within the reach
of human testimony, if that testimony be very extensive and
U1 But^uppose that all the historians who treat of England
should agree, that, on the 1st of January 1600, Queen Eliza
beth died; that both before and after her death she was seen
by her physicians and the whole court, as is usual with person»
of her rank; that her successor was acknowledged and pro
claimed by the Parliament; and that, after being interred a
month, she again appeared, took possession of the throne, and
governed England for three years : I must confess I should be
surprised at the concurrence of so many odd circumstances,
but should not have the least inclination to believe somiraculous an event. I should not doubt of her pretended
death and of those other public circumstances that followed
it: I should only assert it to have been pretended, and that.it
neither was nor possibly could be real. You would m vam
obiect to me the difficulty and almost impossibility of deceiving
the world in an affair of such consequence ; the wisdom and
integrity of that renowned queen; with the little or no advantage which, she could reap from so poor an artifice: All
this might astonish me; hut I would still reply that the
knavery and folly of men are such common phenomena that
I should rather believe the most extraordinary events to arise
from their concurrence than admit so signal a violation ot the
laws of nature.
,
~
But should this miracle be ascribed to any new system of
religion men in all ages have been so much imposed on by
ridiculous stories of that kind, that this, very .circumstance
would be a full proof of a cheat, and sufficient with all men of
�24
sense not only to make them reject the fact, but reject
it without farther examination. Though the being to whom
the miracle is ascribed be in this case Almighty, it does not
upon that account, become a whit more probable ; since it is
impossible for us to know the attributes or actions of such a
Benig, otherwise than from the experience which we have of
ms productions m the usual course of nature. This still
reduces us to past observation, and obliges us to compare the
instance of the violations of truth in the testimony of men
with those of the violation of the laws of nature by miracles
m order to judge which of them is most likely and probable’
As the violations of truth are more common in the testimony
concerning religious miracles than in that concerning any
other matter of fact; this must diminish very much the
authority of the former testimony, and make us form a
general resolution never to lend any attention to it, with
whatever specious pretext it may be covered.
‘■’•Lord Bacon seems to have embraced the same principles
of reasoning:—“ We ought,” says he, “to make a collection
or particular history of all monsters and prodigious births or
productions, and in a word of everything new, rare, and extra
ordinary m nature. But this must be done with the most
severe scrutiny, lest we depart from truth. Above all every
relation must be considered as suspicious which depends in
any degree upon religion, as the prodigies of Livy: And no less
so, everything that is to be found in the writers of natural
magic or alchemy, or such authors, who seem, all of them to
have an uncontrollable appetite for falsehood and fable.”
hacienda enim est congeries sive historia naturalis par
ticulars omnium monstrorum et partuum naturse prodio-i®sorum; omnis denique novitatis et raritatis et inconsueti
in natura. Hoc vero faciendum est cum severissimo delectu, ut constet fides. Maxime autem habenda sunt pro
suspectis quae pendent quomodocunque ex religione, ut prodigia Livn: Nec minus quae inveniuntur in scriptoribus ma^iae
naturals, aut etiam alchymiae, et hujusmodi hominibns; qui
tanquam proci sunt et amatores fabularum.”—“Nov Organ ”
lib. 2., Aph. 29.
° ”
London: Freethought Publishing Company, 28, Stonecutter St., E.CL
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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An essay on miracles
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Hume, David [1711-1776]
Wheeler, Joseph Mazzini [1850-1898]
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 24 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references. Publisher's advertisements inside front cover and inside and on back cover. "With an introduction commenting upon the views of Campbell, Paley, Mill, Powell, Grey, Mozley, Tyndall, Huxley, etc. by Joseph Mazzini Wheeler". [Front cover]. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
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Freethought Publishing Company
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1882
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N315
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (An essay on miracles), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Text
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English
Subject
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Miracles
Superstition
Miracles
NSS
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Text
CT 8}
COMMON SOURCE OF ERROR IN
SEEING AND BELIEVING.
iCccturc
DELIVERED BEFORE
SUNDAY LECTURE
THE
SOCIETY,
ST. GEORGE’S HALL, LANGHAM PLACE,
SUNDAY AFTERNOON, 27th FEBRUARY, 1881,
By H. MAUDSLEY, M.D.,
PUBLISHED BY THE SUNDAY LECTURE SOCIETY.
1881.
PRICE THREEPENCE.
�Works by the same Author:
“ The Pathology of Mind.” Being the Third Edition of the Second
Part of the “ Physiology and Pathology of Mind,” re-cast, much
enlarged, and re-written. In 8vo, price 18s.
“The Physiology of Mind.” Being the First Part of a Third Edition,
revised, enlarged, and re-written, of “ The Physiology and Pathology of
Mind.” Crown 8vo, 10s. 6d.
“ Body and Mind : ” An Inquiry into their connection and Mutual In
fluence, especially with reference to Mental Disorders. Second
Edition, enlarged and revised, with Psychological Essays added.
Crown 8vo, 6s. 6d.
Macmillan & Co., London.
SUNDAY LECTURE SOCIETY.
To provide for the delivery on Sundays in the Metropolis, and to encourage
the delivery elsewhere, of Lectures on Science,—physical, intellectual,
and moral,—History, Literature, and Art; especially iu their bearing
upon the improvement and social well-being of mankind.
, THE SOCIETY’S LECTURES
ARE DELIVERED AT
ST. GEORGE’S HALL, LANGHAM PLACE,
On SUNDAY Afternoons, at FOUR o’clock precisely.
(Annually—from November to May.)
Twenty-four Lectures (in three series), ending 24th April, 1881, will
be given.
Members’ annual subscription, £1, entitles them to a ticket, transferable
(and admitting to the reserved seats), and to eight single reserved-seat
tickets, available for any lecture.
Tickets for each series (one for each lecture)—
To the Sixpenny Seats —2s., being at the rate of Threepence each
lecture.
For tickets, and the printed Lectures, and for list of all the Lectures
published by the Society, apply (by letter) to the Hon. Treasurer,
Wm. Henry Domville, Esq., 15, Gloucester Crescent, Hyde Park,
Payment at the door :—One Penny ■—Sixpence and (Reserved
Seats) One Shilling.
�SYLLABUS.
1. The influence of preconceived idea and of feeling to vitiate observation.
Illustrations:
a. Illusions of Sense.
b. Hallucinations of Sense.
c. Erroneous observation.
d. Miracles.
2. The influence of feeling and belief to vitiate reasoning.
a. Individuals.
b. In communities.
3. The relation of feeling to intellect in the progress of the race.
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�COMMON SOURCE OF ERROR IN
SEEING AND BELIEVING.
PROPOSE not in this lecture to enumerate and discuss all the
mistakes which we are liable to make when we see and draw
conclusions from what we see—all the fallacies, that is to say, to
which observation and reasoning are exposed; I purpose only to
note and illustrate now one very common and prolific source of
wrong observation and inference. It is certain we do not see and
judge rightly by instinct; too often, although we have eyes, we
see not truly, and although we have reason, we use it to come to
wrong conclusions. Reason, we know, man claims as his almost
exclusive prerogative, defining himself—for he has that advantage
over other animals—as pre-eminently the reasoning animal; and
one need not cavil at the definition so long as it is not understood
to mean that everybody reasons rightly, or even commonly bases
his beliefs upon reason. To say of the great majority of persons
that they reason at all in the highest sense of the word is to say
what is not true, since their opinions are plainly either got by
inheritance, or engrafted by education, or moulded by particular
life-experiences, or imposed by authority of some kind, and are
then worn by them, as they wear their clothes, after the fashion.
Governed by their habits of opinion as they are by their habits of
life they find it as hard a matter to change the one as to change
the other. If all men reasoned truly and adequately on every
subject, it is evident that all men would be agreed, which is not
quite the case; we should not be meeting here this afternoon to
broach opinions which will not be perhaps in harmony with those
which have been preached from a thousand pulpits this morning;
the heresy of yesterday would not be, as it often is, the common
sense of to-day, and the common sense of to-day the nonsense of
to-morrow; the majority would not have found it necessary to
stone, burn, poison, cut asunder, crucify, or otherwise silence the
voices of the few who, in the succession of the ages, have not
I
�6
Common Source of Error in
failed to appear from time to time to inspire and to raise men to
higher planes of thought and duty; the world would have been
without the history of its noble army of martyrs of humanity.
This being so, it is a good thing, I think, from time to time to
make a particular study of the common errors to which we are
liable in observation and thinking, and to take note how far
wrong they may carry us. My attention is drawn often and
forcibly to this matter, because, in the course of my professional
work, I meet with persons who, of sound understanding in respect
of all ordinary matters, entertain some extraordinary delusions in
respect of one or two subjects, and cannot be convinced of their
errors by the plainest evidence and argument. Naturally one asks
oneself how it comes to pass that they form and entertain notions
which are absurd to the common sense of mankind, holding to
them in the face of conclusive disproof, and notwithstanding that
they cannot find a single person in the world to agree with them.
The vulgar saying is that they have “ lost their senses,” but it is
not so; their senses are in full work, but somehow they fail to
perform their proper offices. In seeking the explanations of these
remarkable distractions of mind one comes to perceive that, after
all, these people have only carried to an extreme pitch, to an
insane height, a kind of faulty observation and reasoning which
is common enough among persons who are not in the least out of
their minds. ’Tis not true perhaps, as is sometimes said, that
everybody is a little mad, but it is true -that everybody makes day
by day the same sort of errors in observation and reasoning as
those which lead madmen to their delusions.
I go at once to the heart of what I have to say by laying down
the broad proposition that in looking at things a person sees what
he believes he sees, not necessarily that which really is : his notion
of what he sees may correspond with the reality or not, but in
any case he does not see the reality purely ; he sees it through the
idea or notion which he has of it. Had I been born blind, and
were my eyes opened at this moment for the first time to see a
human face before me, I should not know it to be such by my
sense of sight alone: I know a human face, when I see it, only
because of the training in seeing which has been going on ever
since I was born, the unceasing, if unconscious, education which
I have had. The idea has been organised gradually in my mind—
abstract, so to speak, from a multitude of impressions—and when
it is stirred into activity by the proper impression made upon
sight it instantly interprets that impression, so that I recognise
�Seeing and Believing.
7
the object.
*
If my idea were very active and at the same time
did not fit the reality, it might mislead sight, making me mistake
the identity of a face which I saw—just as Don Quixote, possessed
with his fixed idea of giants and enchanted castles, mistook the
sails of a windmill for the arms of a giant—or even, in a more
extreme case, making me actually see a face where there was no face
at all. You have perhaps seen a person who has been put into
what is called the mesmeric state and noticed the extraordinary
illusions which he can be made to suffer: the operator bids him
take a glass of simple water, assuring him at the same time that it
is exceedingly bitter and nasty, and he forthwith spits it out as if
it were poison, with every expression of disgust; he is told that a
wasp is buzzing about his face and he instantly makes frantic
movements to strike it away; he is introduced to a stranger as his
mother or sister and he immediately embraces her. There is
scarcely a mistake of sense, however extravagant, of which he
may not be made the victim if he is duly susceptible and the
operator skilful and confident. Now what is it which takes place ?
This: the idea suggested by the operator becomes so very active
in the subject’s mind, takes such exclusive possession of it, that all
other ideas are inhibited or silenced; they are inactive, in abey
ance, asleep, so to speak, unable therefore to comment upon or
correct it; accordingly the person sees, hears, or otherwise per
ceives all impressions through the active idea, which interprets
them instantly into the language of its own nature : being the
only part of the mind which is then sensible to stimulus and in
function, it cannot of necessity reveal anything which it does notice
but in terms of itself. The person does not see the real thing but
his notion of what the real thing is and that does not in this
case accord with what really is. Here then is an experiment
which plainly shows us that an idea in the mind may reach such a
pitch of exclusive activity as to put to silence other ideas and to
completely befool the senses. It is what happens also to the mad
man who, having the delusion that he is the victim of a malignant
persecution, sees or hears his persecutors pursue or threaten him
where no one else can see or hear anything of them.
I now go a step further and note that something of the same
sort takes place in dreams. When we are asleep we see nothing
* The common saying that “seeing is believing” may then be applied
in a double sense—not alone in the understood sense that we believe by
what we see, but also in the sense that we see by what we believe.
�8
Common Source of Error in
outside us: our eyes being shut it is impossible we should ; never
theless we do see very remarkable scenes if we dream, seeing them
too as if they were outside us and more vividly perhaps than we
do see real things when we are awake. What happens is that the
thoughts of the dreamer as they occur to him become instantly
visible as sensory presentations ; the idea of a thing, so soon as it
becomes active, takes form as the sensible object, is translated into
the outward reality; the idea of a person, for example, becomes
the seen person, the idea of a voice the heard voice. >80 before the
dreamer’s eyes as a visible pageant, a scenic show, moves the train
of succeeding ideas; it is as if each vague thought which came
into the mind as we walked along the street absorbed in reverie
was visible as an actual scene ; in which case it is plain we
should be surrounded by an ideal world which would be the real
world to us, while the real world would be faint and shadowy or
quite unperceived. Now this happens the more easily in dreams
for two reasons—first, because the active idea has for the time
almost exclusive possession of the mind, the rest of it being asleep,
and, secondly, because the closure of the senses by sleep to all
outward things, preventing that distraction of them by other
objects which is taking place more or less during waking even in
the deepest reverie, leaves them at the mercy of the idea. Here
there is another instance where an idea or notion vividly experi
enced imposes itself upon sense, becomes an actual hallucination.
Take another case: people don’t see ghosts nowadays when they
go through churchyards by night, as they used often to do in olden
times. Why is that ? It is because, not believing in ghosts, they
do not expect to see them: they have not in their minds the idea
of a ghost which may step solemnly forth from behind a tombstone
or glide away like a guilty thing ashamed. ’Tis an instance of the
excellent philosophy which is never wanting in Shakspeare, that
he makes Hamlet see his father’s ghost at midnight, when the air
is bitterly cold, not a mouse stirring, on the lonely and rocky
platform before the castle of Elsinore, after he had been informed
in solemnly impressive tones of its previous appearances, when he
himself is there in a tremor of expectation to see it, and immedi
ately after Horatio’s exclamation “ Look, my lord, it comes!”
Again: there is an event which has happened sometimes to
dying persons, well fitted to make a solemn and startling impres
sion on those about them. When at the point of death or nearly
so, the dying person, gazing intently before him, as if he saw some
one there, may pronounce suddenly the name of a long dead
�9
Seeing and Believing.
Relative, exclaim perhaps “ Mother,” and soon after expire. Natu
rally people suppose that the spirit of his dead mother has appeared
to him, and are happy to think that he has joined in a better world
those who were taken away from him in this world. So they take
CQmfort to themselves when they lose by death one who is near
and dear to them in the belief that although he shall not return to
them they shall go to him. That may or may not be, but certainly
the apparition is not proof of it, since it is no more than one of
the hallucinations which a dying person is liable to have; for when
he is near death and the failing functions of his brain portend
their near impending extinction, wandering thoughts of the far
distant past, impressions of childhood perhaps, seemingly long
effaced, but never actually effaced, may flicker in the mind and,
taking visible form as thoughts take form in dreams, be seen as
visions. You will remember that Shakspeare makes Falstaff,
when dying in a London tavern after a life of the most gross
debauchery, a worn out old libertine, go back in this way to the
memories of more innocent days and “babble of green fields.”*
These broken reversions, as I may call them, are the last ebbing
functions of the brain which, as Shakspeare puts it, then
“ Doth by the idle comments that it makes
Foretell the ending of mortality.”
'
I might go on to multiply instances of this production of hallu
cination by idea, since they are to be met with in all quarters.
You have heard perhaps that there has lately been an apparition
of the Virgin Mary at Lather Ignatius’s Monastery - of Llanthonev
Abbey, which was seen first in a meadow by four boys of the
Abbey, after that by a brother of the Abbey, and last of all
by Father Ignatius himself. This is his account of what he
saw:—
“ About eight o’clock on Wednesday evening, the 15th inst. (after
the last service of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin) we all
* It is very doubtful, however, whether Shakspeare ever wrote what is
now the received text. In the first authentic edition (1623) the words
were not “ ’a babbled of green fields,” but “ a table of green fields,” which
was nonsense. It was changed by an anonymous critic to “ ’a talked of
green fields,” which Theobald altered into the present reading. Thirty
years ago, however, an annotated copy of the edition of 1632 was found,
which, among a great number of corrections of the text, substituted for
“’a.table of green fields,” the words “on a table of green frieze ”—£<?.,
“ His nose was as sharp as a pen on a table of green frieze.” Dr. Newman
makes use of these discrepancies for the purposes of his argument in
Grammar of Assent (p. 265), and it is from him that I quote them.
�10
Common Source of Error in
came to the porch door. I held the processional crucifix. With
me were the brothers, Mr. Bouse, and a gentleman from Oxford
who had visited the Monastery for the purpose of endeavouring
to see the vision. The boys were kneeling in front of us, Sister
Janet was kneeling in the meadow. It was a very wet night. We
were singing the ‘Aves.’ We had sung three ‘Aves ’ in honour
of the Holy Trinity, and we had just finished a fourth to the
Blessed Virgin, when, all of a sudden, when I was not expecting
anything of the kind, I saw a tremendous outburst of light from
the dark, heavy clouds over the farm building. It seemed to
burst right upon the buildings. The light was all in bulging circles.
In the very centre of the light there appeared, coming down upon
us, a human form. It was a very commanding^ stately figure.
I could only see sideways. The face was turned towards the bush.
I could only see it momentarily, as it were in the 1 twinkling of an
eye.’ But in that moment it stood out so distinctly and startling
that I am sure that it was darker than the light. Had it been
clothed in cloth of silver, or cloth of gold, it might have produced
the same effect—the darkness against the light. There was an
intense reality about the figure. It was momentary, as I before
said, and yet it seemed that it might have been an hour’s vision,
so intensely real was it. In the majesty of the figure, and in its
being dark against the light, it reminded me of Dore’s picture,
‘The triumph of Christianity over Paganism.’ There were
flashings of light about the figure. In a moment, as I looked, it
vanished. Before it vanished it had appeared as if it would have
descended upon the church door or the church roof. I feel sure
that it must have been the figure of the Blessed Virgin, because,
although I could not discern the dress it wore, I could see that it
was fully draped; whereas in the visions which others have seen,
when they have seen a male figure, it has always appeared with
simply a cloth round the loins, as our Lord is represented in
baptism, and at other times. I also feel sure that it was the
Virgin, because the figure appeared immediately after we had
sung the ‘ Ave ’ in her honour. The figure also had its face
turned towards the bush, where our Ladye had first been seen. I
have further confirmation in the fact that about two or three
minutes afterwards the Blessed Virgin’s figure was seen by the
gentleman who was watching with us, and by one of the boys,
nearer to the ground.” *
* South Wales Daily News, September 13th and 27th, 1880.
�Seeing and Believing.
11
“ These,” he says, “ are extraordinary and absolute facts. The
sceptic may and will scoff, but his scoffing will not explain or
diminish the truth or supernatural character of these absolute and
incontrovertible facts * * * No amount of contradiction, ridicule,
or unbelief can alter the fact that Monday, August 30th, 1880, be
tween the hours of 9 and 11 a.m., the Blessed Virgin appeared in
dazzling light to four boys and did what no earthly being could do
before their eyes.”. With such positive and incontrovertible testi
mony of eye-witnesses, are you of so little faith as to doubt that
the Blessed Virgin appeared ? Probably you have great doubts, as
I have; and perhaps I may venture to think that I shall carry your
sympathetic doubts with me in my sceptical interpretation of
another vivid vision of an apparition in circumstances particularly
favourable to its occurrence.
The vision in this case happened to a woman whom we may
believe to have been predisposed in some measure to hallucination,
since we are told of her that she had once had seven devils cast
out of her; a story which, in modern scientific interpretation,
means that she had once been insane and had recovered. In all
likelihood, therefore, she was one of those persons, susceptible or
sensitive, as mesmerists call them, whose unstably balanced nervecentres were easily liable to take on that sort of irregular action
which issues in hallucination and delusion. The woman I refer
to is Mary Magdalene, who visited the sepulchre of Christ on the
third day aft.er His burial, and who, according to the gospel of St.
John, saw two angels in white sitting, the one at the head and the
other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. I say accord
ing to John, because the stories of the resurrection told by the
writers of the different gospels differ considerably in details;
amongst other things, not agreeing as to whether there was one
angel or whether there were two angels, or as to the persons who
saw the apparition or apparitions. Discrepancies in the stories of
supernatural phenomena are not of course to be wondered at;
they are the natural results of an inspiration more than natural
pouring itself into natural channels. Those, however, whose
understandings are informed by observation and experience of
nature, not by inspiration from outside nature, may suspect
perhaps that Mary Magdalene, having an excitable brain, was the
victim of a hallucination. She ran to the sepulchre in hot excite
ment, eagerly expectant to see something extraordinary, and she
saw something extraordinary: a flitting impression on sight, pro
bably the “ linen clothes lying there, and the napkin that was
�12
Common Source of Error in
about the head not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped
together in a place by itself,” suggested two angels, and the ideas
of the angels so suggested took visible form, dominating the sense,
just as the gleaming whiteness of a tombstone suggesting the idea
of a ghost to the walker through a churchyard by night was trans
formed instantly into a ghost.
This dominion of the idea over the senses, which has its con
summate effect in the production of hallucination, is really the most
fruitful source of error and defect in common observation, an ever
active, and never to be neglected, cause of fallacy. Men see not
the reality purely, but see it in the coloured light of the notions
which they have of it. Hence no two persons see an event exactly
alike; two witnesses go into the witness-box and give widely different accounts of the same transaction at which they were present
together ; two newspaper reporters, of different politics, believing
themselves sincere and truthful, send home to their respective
employers nearly opposite accounts of the same occurrences; in
each case there is the individual mind behind the eye. Has any
one got a belief, no matter how he got it—whether through his
understanding, as he flatters himself he gets all his beliefs, or
through his feelings, as he actually gets most of them—his mind
yields willing access to all facts which are in keeping with it, and
very Unwilling access to any fact which does not consist with it,
insomuch that the belief comes to determine much of what he sees,
to govern his actual observation of things. The stronger, more
over, the feeling associated with a preconceived idea or belief, the
more completely does it rule sense and vitiate observation. What
infatuated lover ever fails to see “ Helen’s beauty in a brow of
-Egypt?” What excited onlooker at a spectacle of horror could
ever give an accurate account of it ? At one time it was a firmlyrooted superstition that the wounds on the body of a murdered
person would bleed afresh when the murderer was made to touch
the corpse, and witnesses testified frequently to having seen that
happen. Two respectable clergymen, for example, swore at a trial
in the time of Charles I. (1628-9) that the body having been taken
out of the grave and laid on the grass, thirty days after death, and
one of the parties accused of murder required to touch it, “ the
brain of the dead began to have a dew or gentle sweat arise on it,
which increased by degrees till the sweat ran down in drops on
the face; the brow turned to a lively flesh-colour, and the deceased
opened one of her eyes and shut it again ; and this opening of the
eye was done three several times ; she likewise thrust out the ring,
�Seeing and Believing.
13
or marriage finger, three times, and pulled it in again; and the
finger dropped blood from it on the grass.” Here was evidence
against the accused which, if true, must have convinced even him
that he ought to be hanged. Of course, it was not true ; the
witnesses, however, were not wilfully or wittingly deceiving, they
were themselves deceived; they saw not the real thing, but the
imagination of what the real thing was. One may be permitted
to judge, by this example, of the value of the unsifted testimony
of the believer who has seen a miracle. ’Tis not that he has
really seen a miracle, but that. he has made a miracle of what he
has mis-seen.
It may be urged perhaps in respect of miracles that it is ex
tremely improbable, if not impossible, that several persons attest
ing them could be deceived in the same way at the same time. On
the contrary, nothing more easy in certain circumstances : a great
wave of emotion passing through a number of people, as emotion
does pass by the quick infection of sympathy, will carry belief with
it and make them see and testify to a quite impossible occurrence.
Hence miracles have always abounded where there was a great
fever of religious enthusiasm. The greater the heat of feeling the
less the coolness of observation and the more plentiful the mira
cles. Nay, it needs not much heat of feeling to see a miracle if a
number of persons be collected together intently expecting to see
something extraordinary happen: the ghost .seldom fails to appear
where the spectators are gathered together to see it. Every
religion has had its miracles and its multitudinous witnesses to
them. We do not believe it any the more on that account; we
ought indeed to believe it rather the less, since the miracle is pre
sumption, if not proof, of bad observation by the witnesses. The
lowest religion will have the most miracles, a higher religion will
have few of them, and the highest of all will probably have none
at ail. What we may fairly conclude from the testimony of hot
believers is that, by reason of their strong belief, they were not
witnesses to be depended upon, as observers. The interest of
miracles at this day, I take it, is not that which could attach to an
occurrence out of the fixed order of nature, but that which attaches
to the study of the defective, irregular, or actually morbid action
of the human brain, especially under conditions of unusual excite
ment ; it is not whether the body of a dead man which had lain in
the grave until it had begun to putrefy came to life again, but why
people thought and said so. When the belief in miracles has
become extinct they will be received by psychology into its domain
�14
Common Source of Error in
and they will be of lasting interest there. Indeed, it will be a
most instructive study of the future to elucidate and set forth the
exact relations of beliefs in supernatural phenomena to defective
or morbid functions of the brain. Supernaturalism will take its
proper place as an interesting chapter in psychology.
Thus much then with regard to the action which idea may exert
upon the senses; an action plainly so strong sometimes as to sub
due them into a complete subjection to it. In any case it is almost
impossible for one who has a preconceived notion in his mind to
help seeing in an event that only which is agreeable to the notion,
that which sorts or suits with it. Those who have not thought of
this tendency as an active source of fallacy in observation, and
realised how deeply, widely, constantly and unconsciously it works
are not qualified to weigh the value of testimony; they are like
those who should accept without question an assertion that the
trees and grass were blue from one who was looking at the country
through blue spectacles. To denote, moreover, this action of idea
upon sense vaguely as imagination or even as mental carries us no
further forward ; to rest satisfied there is simply to make a word
do duty for a conception; there is neither explanation nor definite
meaning in the statement. Whether we like it or not, we shall
have to acknowledge, first or last, that the process is at bottom
physical, and that we can have no explanation worth thinking
about until we find out what the physical basis is. Unhappily we
are yet a long way from that discovery; we must be satisfied for
the present to figure grossly to ourselves what takes place in the
intimate, most delicate and hidden operations of nerve molecules,
by the help of conceptions derived from the grosser operations in
physics which we can observe and manipulate. When the impres
sion on sense vibrates to the same note as the idea, we may say, it
is perceived and intensifies the idea—that is to say, is assimilated
mentally; when it does not vibrate in unison with it there is no
response, it is not perceived; the active idea responds to the note
that is in harmony with it, just as the string of a harp gives back
in consonant vibrations its proper note when that note is struck
near it.
I proceed now to mark the operation of the same sort of error
in the higher region of thought—in reasoning, that is, about what
we get from the senses when we have got the facts correctly.
Even then we are liable to go all wrong in the opinions or infer
ences which we form. The predominant bias sways the judgment.
Two persons shall have the same facts presented to them, and
�Seeing and Believing.
15
shall not differ as to the facts, yet it is notorious that they will,
according to the bias of their respective opinions, feelings, interests,
differ widely in the conclusions they draw from them, just as two
judges will give very unequal sentences for the same kind of
offence. How is it that the one sees a conclusion plainly and
thinks the other, who does not see it, blinded by prejudice to the
most obvious truth?' The reason of course is that each looks at
the circumstances from his own standpoint, and sees only or
mainly that which is in accord with the bias of his mind, over
looking that which is not; he sees vividly the reasons which
support his opinion, and which the other sees dimly or not at all;
he sees only dimly, or not at all, the reasons which go counter to
it, and which the other sees vividly. Now, how would a third
person, undertaking to bring these two to the same conclusion, go
about to accomplish it ? Certainly he would not treat them as
purely reasoning beings, and encourage them to go on arguing, by
which they would only heat themselves the more, but he would
handle each as if he was anything but an exact reasoning being;
he would not consider only the truth of what he had to say to
him, but would take account of his feelings, principles, prejudices,
character, and endeavour to bring this truth into the best relations
possible with these predominant lines of disposition, making it
pleasing or agreeable—that is to say, able to agree—and so to get
it accepted; he would in fact persuade by agreeing more than by
convincing, remembering the adage—
“ A man convinced against his will
Is of the same opinion still.”
Dealing in this insinuating way with both he brings them gently
and skilfully over their difference to the same conclusion, and that
the right conclusion if the affair be properly managed. One must
have the feelings of a person engaged in favour of reason before he
can see reason, must prejudice him in favour of an argument
before he can feel the force of it. Is not this a proof how very far
man is from being the good reasoning machine which he imagines
himself?
There is not a day, not an hour of the day perhaps, in any
one’s life which does not yield examples of this sort of biassed
or one-sided perception and reasoning. The moods of the moment
notably colour strongly our views of the character or issue of an
event, notwithstanding that the dry light of reason ought to
demonstrate a plain and certain conclusion. Optimism or pessi
mism is a matter of temperament, not of reason ; life-despair may
�16
Common Source of Error in
be the intellectual expression, and suicide the outcome in act, of
deranged organic feeling in a sadly tuned temperament. In that
extreme state of morbid depression of mind which we call
melancholia the sufferer cannot perceive a ray of hope, a glimmer
of comfort anywhere; he sees every undertaking, every scheme,
moving towards the same goal of ruin; he can follow the argu
ments which prove that his fears are groundless, but they produce
no effect upon him ; they reach his understanding, but they do
not touch his gloom-enshrouded heart, and accordingly they “no
more avail than breath against the wind.” Assuredly we credit
ourselves with a great deal larger measure of reason in the forma
tion and change of our beliefs than ever enters into them. On
the one hand, strong and convincing argument will sometimes not
compel belief; on the other hand, a change will sometimes take
place in an individual’s belief, while the reasons in favour of it are
as strong as ever; as Cardinal Newman has remarked, he does
not know how or when the belief has gone, but he finds out some
day that it is gone ; the perception of the old argument remains,
but some change in feeling in himself arising out of condition, age,
interests, occupation, &c., has worked a change of belief.
I shall not go on now to give any more illustrations from
individual experience, because I am anxious, in the time which
remains at my disposal, to point out how this source of error
in reasoning infects the belief of whole peoples, and leads them
to the most illogical conclusions. Do we not oftentimes see
nations swept by epidemics of feeling and belief, good or bad ?
Have wars been rational undertakings, or have they not been, in
nine cases out of ten, the results of insane suspicion and insaner
folly ? When one looks quietly back at the history of man’s
thoughts and doings upon earth, considering at the same time
his claim to be pre-eminently a reasoning animal, it is impossible
to help being amazed at the utterly irrational belief which pro
fessedly rational beings have formed and sincerely cherished.
More wonder, perhaps, that as they were so irrational as to form
and hold them they were ever rational enough to get rid of them.
It may be said, no doubt, that as they got better knowledge they
abandoned them, but I doubt whether knowledge has nearly so
much to do directly with human progress as we are in the easy
habit of assuming. It has always been as positive a piece of
knowledge as it is now that every one must die—that to be mortal
is not to be immortal—and that when a person is dead and buried
he does not come to life again ; that certainly is as long and sure
�Seeing and Believing.
17
an experience as human beings have had, since it dates from the
beginning of experience ; yet, in spite of that experience, the
greater part of those ranking amongst the most civilized and
enlightened of the earth, and marking therefore the highest water
mark of human progress, solemnly believe at this moment that
there have been men who have not died, and others who, after
being dead, have come to life again. And at great expense, and
through many perils, they send missionaries into all parts of the
earth to teach that wisdom to those whose sad ignorance of it
they compassionate. The very creed of the Christian is that the
God whom he worships became a man, was crucified on the cross,
died and was buried, and on the third day rose again and ascended
into heaven. That is a matter of solemn belief, but can we truly
say that it is a matter of rational knowledge ? Looked at in the
dry light of the understanding, we must admit that there could
not well be a doctrine more improbable, more revolting to reason.
How it strikes the unbiassed minds of those who have not been
trained from youth upwards to accept it we know by the experience
of the Jesuit missionaries in China, who found the dogma of a
crucified God so great an obstacle in the way of conversions that
they quietly suppressed it; they preached Jesus Christ triumphant,
not Jesus Christ crucified. It is beyond question then that there
is in man a power deeper and stronger than knowledge which
decides in some cases what he shall believe, and that the most
complete contradiction of observation and reason which it is
possible to conceive can be accepted as a solemn truth, if it be in
harmony with the prevailing tone or feeling of mind. Thereupon
all the powers of the understanding are brought into play, not to
prove it by a searching trial of its worth, but in order to find out
reasons why it should be believed. Meanwhile, all the reasons in
the world against it will not seriously touch it so long as there is
no fundamental change of feeling : when that takes place, how
ever, the whole fabric of belief tumbles easily to pieces without
any serious assault being made upon it. So far from rational im
probability being a difficulty to theological faith, the greater the
mystery the greater the faith of the true believer, until he reaches
the logical climax of sublime credulity in the acceptance of
Tertullian’s maxim—Credo quia impossible est, I believe it because
it is impossible.
Look back for a moment at the beginnings of Christianity.
How little had knowledge to do with its origin and progress I It
was born of the heart, not of the understanding of mankind, in the
�18
Common Source of Error in
stable not in the Academy or the Lyceum. The great and learned
of that time looked down on it with scorn as a pernicious supersti
tion, and it found acceptance among the poor and ignorant, the
publicans and sinners.
*
Let us note well the meaning of that:
the greatest revolutionary—or rather evolutionary—force which
has moved human society was not the product of the intellect, but
was an outcome of a glowing feeling of the universal brotherhood
of mankind; a feeling so deep and strong and true that it has
inspired and kept alive to this day many beliefs which outrage the
understanding. Can we believe then that the next great revolu
tionary force which shall move society afresh will spring from the
understanding and be governed by its rules? It needs little
reflection, I think, to show that a great social reform will never
come from a Senate or a House of Lords or other sort of upper
chamber, however cultivated and benevolent its members. No;
the impulse will come deep out of the heart of the people,
announcing itself many times beforehand no doubt in blind
yearnings, in wild explosions of social discontent, perhaps in reck
less uprisings of turbulence and violence, a great unreflecting
force, which it should be the function of intelligence to guide in
the right way. You may stop a revolution which has been
hatched in the intellect, by cutting off the heads of the few who
have knowledge ; you will never stop a revolution which has been
bred in the heart of the people by cutting off their heads. Instead
of denouncing wildly the social interest and visionary aspirations
which find outlets in communistic, socialistic, nihilistic, and
similar doctrines and disorders, it would be more wise to try to
understand their meaning; since it may be they are the blind,
* “ It is profitable to remind ourselves,” says Dr. Newman, “ that our Lord
Himself was a sort of smith, and made ploughs and cattle-yokes. Four
Apostles were fishermen, one a petty-tax collector, two husbandmen, one
is said to have been a coachman, and another a market gardener.” Peter
and John are spoken of as “illiterate men and of the lower sort.” Their
converts were of the same rank. They are, says Celsus, “ weavers, shoe
makers, fullers, illiterate clowns.” “ Fools, low-born fellows,” says
Trypho. “ Men collected from the lowest dregs of the people ; ignorant,
credulous women; ” “ unpolished, boors, illiterate, ignorant even of the
sordid arts of life; they do not understand civil matters, how can they
understand divine ? ” says Ccecilius. “ They deceive women, servants and
slaves,” says Julian. The Fathers themselves give similar testimony as to
their brethren. “ Ignorant men, mechanics, and old women,” says Athenagoras. “They are gathered,” says Jerome, “not from the Academy or
the Lyceum, but from the low populace.” Of meaner sort and more de
spised than the Communisis of Paris; and yet they overturned the world!
�Seeing and Believing.
19
instinctive, dimly prophetic impulses of a truth which, coming
from the suffering and brooding heart of society, lies deeper than
knowledge and which knowledge will one day have to reckon
with. No man’s intellect measures his character; from the un
fathomed depths of his being comes not only that which he shall
feel and do but in great measure also that which he shall think.
So it is with humanity as a whole. It is feeling which inspires
and stirs its great pulses, the intellect fashioning the moulds into
which the feeling shall flow. How momentously important then
that the people should have understanding, should learn know
ledge, so that neither craft of superstition, nor craft of ruler, nor
any other craft may again take possession of its forces and turn
them to its profit I
We are so comfortably confident of the stability of our progress
in these days that we do not give the heed we should to the lessons
of the past and consider seriously, as we might well do from time
to time, to what destructive issues uninstructed popular feeling
may one day carry us. There can be little doubt that each of the
mighty nations of the past believed that its kingdom would endure
and that it was impossible its gains should ever be lost to man
kind. But Home, and Greece, and Egypt are now but the
shadows of great names, and the once powerful Empires of the
East have disappeared so completely that even the places where
their mighty cities stood are hardly known. We may be sure that
there were sagacious men in each of these dead nations who fore
saw the end, perceived the causes that were leading straight to it,
and raised their unregarded voices in warning to the people. But
it is the eternal fate of Cassandra to be unheeded. In vain are the
most obvious truths preached to a people possessed by an impulse
of feeling with which they are not in harmony ; the nation which
is declining to its fall is as deaf to the admonitions of the few
thoughtful men who perceive and try to stay its course of folly
as it is blind to the plainest lessons of its own experience;
elementary principles of morality and the commonest maxims of
prudence go down alike before the current of feeling, and the
audacious charlatan who most cleverly flatters, fans, and directs
its sentiments is acclaimed and obeyed as a hero. This has
always been so, and it would be taking much too hopeful a view
of human nature to believe that it will not be so again. In spite
of all the gains of modern knowledge, which we think so certain,
but which, after all, are the real work and possession of only a
few, it is not at all out of the range of possible occurence that a
�20
Common Source of Error in
great turbid wave of superstition may overflow and overwhelm our
civilization, as other civilizations have been overwhelmed before it.
Do you think perhaps that the foundations of modern knowledge
are laid so deep and sure that it is incredible that they should ever
be swept away ? Well, it is a very sanguine belief: one might
have thought it as sure a truth as could well be that a person once
dead will not come to life again, but while multitudes believe the
opposite of that very plain experience, are the foundations of
belief so very sure ? xMen are not moved by knowledge, let me
say again, but by feeling, and were a strong wave of superstitious
feeling to pass through them they would see and believe nothing
that was not in harmony with it, would see and believe every
thing that was in harmony with it, would move on, until it was
spent, a huge devastating force, so far as pure reason was
concerned.
There is something too much of complacent self-deception in the
loud praise which we give to pure truth and in the high-flown devo
tion which we loudly profess to it; we make up by our theoretical
enthusiasm for it for much practical dislike and intolerance of it.
Truth is not so acceptable as illusion, since we live in perpetual
illusion, deceived and deceiving. We seem what we are not, and
make others believe that we think them what they are not. No
one speaks the truth sincerely to another, or talks of him in his
presence as he does in his absence. There is no one who would
not think himself grossly insulted if he had truth told of him, nor
would any one who adopted the practice of speaking the truth
always find it easy to keep himself out of an asylum. We hate the
speaker of truth, although the truth which hurts our self-love may
be most useful to us;. and love the flatterer, although we know the
flattery to be false and injurious. The ardent profession which
we make of a love of pure truth is itself a comfortable illusion
which we create for ourselves. From cradle to grave we are occu
pied—wisely, I dare say—in nursing our illusions, putting away
one, when we have worn it out, to take up another more fitting
the new desires which experience and years give us. If a person
really believed at the outset of life, as he knows at the end of it,
that all is vanity and vexation of spirit, would he have sufficient
motive to live ? Had there been no illusory prospect of Elysian
fields, or happy hunting grounds, or other sort of paradise beyond
the miseries of this world, where those who had suffered much and
unjustly here might hope to find recompense, one may doubt
almost whether faith in virtue could have been kept alive, whether
�*
‘Seeing and Believing.
21
the social organism would have held together ; at any rate, thou
sands of dreary lives would have been more dreary than they were,
thousands of self-sacrifices of work, of wealth, of duty, would never
have been made, the hopes, aspirations, and prayers which have
consoled and sustained thousands of heavy-laden hearts would not
have been. What then will be the consequence if science, as it
seems to threaten, shatters these hopes as illusions ? Will the
multitude be able to bear the pain, to face the fearful void, of so
great a loss ? Will man be able to live what the Bishop of Peter
borough has described lately as. “ a joyless existence, uncheered by
the hope of a happier hereafter, undignified by the consciousness of
divine descent and the heirship of immortality,” if science makes
him sincerely realise, as it seems to be going to work to do, that
he has no hope whatever of a happier hereafter, that his descent is
not divine but simian, that his last heirship is the corruption of
the grave ? Will not the bereaved people, craving for something
to satisfy the needs of the heart which knowledge cannot give, fly
for refuge in despair to some creed or church in which they may
find again the hopes, and consolation, and support of which they
have been robbed ?
Here lies the strength of the position of the Church of Rome.
Possessing an organization the most complete which the world
has ever known, served by its ministers with a devotion which
counts nothing gain that is not its gain, inspired with the theory
that the meanest human soul is worthy of all its energies, it offers
what seems a safe haven of refuge in the midst of the surging tur
moil of doubts, perplexities, and despair, the perfect rest of absolute
truth delivered into its keeping from the beginning: Come unto
me, might be its cry, all ye that are weary of spirit, with many
doubts and heavyladen of heart with the burden of your fears,
and I will give yon rest.
*
It is admirably adapted by its organi
* “ Thus it is sometimes spoken of as a hardship that a Catholic is not
allowed to inquire into the truth of his Creed ; of course he cannot if he
would retain the name of believer. He cannot be both inside and outside
of the Church at once. It is merely common sense to tell him that, if he
is seeking, he has not found. If seeking includes doubting, and doubting
excludes believing, then the Catholic who sets about inquiring thereby
declares that he is not a Catholic. He has already lost faith.”
J. H. Newman, Grammar of Assent. p. 184.
“ For, since we have the truth, and truth cannot change, how can we
possibly change in our belief, except indeed through our own weakness
or. fickleness.” p. 186.
�22
Common Source of Error in
zation, its ordinances, and its doctrine to respond to all the appeals
of the weak side of human nature. And I make no doubt many
will flee to it in the coming conflicts. But not of the people, we
may predict; not of the masses which constitute the foundation
and strength of the social organism. Its converts will come from
the tired votaries of fashion, weary of the dreary frivolities of
their lives, and eager to replace their exhausted desires by new
sentiments; from those who are educated enough to perceive
difficulties and perplexities of thought, without being courageous
and capable enough to face them sincerely and to think them out
thoroughly; from those again who, in the mortal struggle of new
thought for existence, have not the strength of understanding and
character to stay through the course, but falling by the wayside,
eagerly in their need lay hold of the helping hand which authority
holds out to them. These and the like are the classes from which
its converts will mainly come. The strong pulsations of popular feel
ing which make themselves felt in different nations, have no affini
ties with the Church of Rome nor has it shown the least sympathy
with them ; on the contrary they are essentially hostile to it, since
it has committed what seems to an outsider the fatal mistake of
allying itself with caste, privilege, power, and of alienating the
great liberal forces with which lies the determination of the
future : Catholic in name it has lost all claim to be Catholic in
fact. It is a rash thing to prophesy, but if I may venture a
prophesy here, it is that it will be by these great popular forces,
not by the knowledge of the learned, that it will be overthrown in
the final struggle. The French Revolution, momentous as an
event, was perhaps more momentous as a prophesy.
If what I have said thus far be true, what is the function of
those who have faith in the future of mankind, who are sanguine
enough to nurse enthusiastic hopes of its glorious destiny ? As
suredly to work well together, while it is time, to enlighten the
giant, so that when he puts forth his strength he may use it wisely,
to give him the understanding to direct his might in the right way.
Although intellect does not move the world it should guide directly
the forces which do move it, and so modify indirectly, as it will by
degrees, the deeper sources in which they take their instinctive
origin. One thing is certain whatever else may be doubtful: that
the true and honest method to pursue is directly the opposite of
that which the Churches have striven to enforce ; it is not to incul
cate credulity, to stifle doubt, to foster prej udice, in order that the
beliefs which are may continue to be. That method we know to be
�Seeing and Believing.
23
false. It is to seek truth and pursue it, at whatever cost, whether
it bring us sorrow or joy, peace or tribulation. Doubt, be it never
so disquieting, must go before enquiry, and enquiry before the
discovery of new truth. Scepticism is guilt in the eyes only of those
who fear truth, since it is the essential prerequisite of it. It is
impossible to foresee what fate the future has in store for the race
of man on earth; one may fain hope a more peaceful and happy
career than that which he has had in the past, since to look back
through his history from the beginning unto now is to look back
through succeeding chapters of wars, treachery, tortures, cruelties
and atrocities of all sorts and degrees by which “ man’s inhumanity
to man” has “made countless thousands mourn;” a spectacle of
horrors so appalling that, could we compass it in imagination, it
might well warrant the belief, if matters ended now, of a malevo
lent, not a benevolent, scheme of creation. We shall do well to
cherish the hope, or if not the hope the illusion, that matters will
not end here; that a brighter day will come when knowledge and
peace shall spread through the whole earth, and man’s humanity
to man leave few to mourn; that the past traditions of a golden
age, when all was plenty and peace, and the later aspirations for
a Paradise to come, in which sorrow and sin shall be no more,
may be not entire fable and illusion, but essentially dim fore
feelings, the prophetic instincts, of that which one day shall have
a measure of fulfilment upon earth.
�SUNDAY LECTURE SOCIETY.
The SOCIETY’S LECTURES NOW PRINTED are .—
Miss Mary E. Beedy. On “Joint Education of Young Men and Women
in the American Schools and Colleges.”
Rev. J. F. Blake. On “The Geological Results of Arctic Exploration.”
Professor G. S. Boulger. On “The Physiological Unity of Plants and
Animals.”
Professor Clifford. On “ The bearing of Morals on Religion.”
On “Right and Wrong; the scientific ground of their distinction.”
Mr. T. W. Rhys Davids. On “ Is life worth having ? and the eternal
Hope. An Answer from Buddha’s First Sermon.”
Mr. W. H. Domvtlle. On “ The Rights and Duties of Parents in regard
to their children’s religious education and beliefs.” With notes.
Mr. A. Elley Finch. On “The Influence of Astronomical Discovery in
the Development of the Human Mind.” With woodcut illustrations.
On “ Civilization; its modern safeguards and future prospects.”
On “The Principles of Political Economy; their scientific basis, and
practical application to Social Well-being.”
On “The English Freethinkers of the Eighteenth Century.”
On “ The Science of Life Worth Living.”
On “The Victories of Science in its Warfare with Superstition.”
Rev. J. Panton Ham. On “The Stage and Drama in relation to Society.”
Professor W. A. Hunter. On “A sketch of the English Law of
Heresy past and present.”
Mr. M. Macfie. On “ The impending contact of Turanian and Aryan
Races;—the Physical and Economic results of Chinese migrations
to the West.”
On “ Religious Parallelisms and Symbolisms, Ancient and Modern.”
Dr. H. Maudsley. On “ Lessons of Materialism.”
On “ The Physical Basis of Will.”
On “ Common Source of Error in Seeing and Believing.”
Mrs. Fenwick Miller. “ The Lessons of a Life :—Harriet Martineau.”
Dr. Andrew Wilson. On “ The Origin of Nerves.”
Dr. G. G. Zerffi. On “ The spontaneous dissolution of Ancient Creeds.”
On “ Dogma and Science.”
On “ The Eastern Question; from a Religious and Social point of view.”
On “ Jesuitism, and the Priest in Absolution.”
On “ Pre-Adamites ; or, Prejudice and Science.”
On “ Long and short Chronologists.”
On “ The Origin of Christianity from a strictly historical point of View.”
The price of each of the above Lectures is 3d., or post-free 3)d.
Mr. A. Elley Finch. On “The Pursuit of Truth.” Cloth 8vo„
pp. 106. “ The Inductive Philosophy.” Cloth 8vo„ pp. 100.
The price of each of these Lectures is 5s., or post-free 5s. 3d.
Two vols. of Lectures (1st and 3rd Selection), cloth-bound, price 5s.
each, or post-free 5s. 6d., contain Lectures otherwise out of print, viz.:
by the late Mr. Geo. Browning and Professor Clifford, and by
Dr. Carpenter, Mr. Clodd, Mr. Edward Maitland, Mr. Plumptre,
and Dr. Zerffi. Table of contents of these vols. sent on application.
Can be obtained (on remittance, by letter, of postage stamps or order) of
the Hon. Treasurer, Wm. Henry Domvtlle, Esq., 15, Gloucester
Crescent, Hyde Park, W., or at the Hall on the days of Lecturi;
or ofTAv. J. Bumpus, Bookseller, 158, Oxford Street, W.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Common source of error in seeing and believing : a lecture delivered before the Sunday Lecture Society, St. George's Hall, Langham Place, on Sunday afternoon, 27th February, 1881
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Maudsley, Henry [1835-1918]
Description
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Place of Publication: London
Collation: 23, [1] p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Presented in Memory of Dr. Moncure D. Conway by his children, July Nineteen hundred & eight. Includes bibliographical references. List of Sunday Society Society lectures on back page.
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Conway Tracts
Fallacies
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COMMON SOURCE OF ERROR IN
I SEEING AND BELIEVING. .
ytrfutt
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
SUNDAY LECTURE SOCIETY,
ST. GEORGE’S HALL, LANGHAM PLACE,
ON
SUNDAY AFTERNOON, 27th FEBRUARY, 1881,
By H. MAUDSLEY, M.D.,
IConban:
PUBLISHED BY THE SUNDAY LECTURE SOCIETY.
1881.
PRICE THREEPENCE.
�Works by the same Author:
“The Pathology of Mind.” Being the Third Edition of the Second
Part of the “ Physiology and Pathology of Mind,” re-cast, much
enlarged, and re-written. In 8vo, price 18s.
“ The Physiology of Mind.” Being the First Part of a Third Edition,
revised, enlarged, and re-written, of “ The Physiology and Pathology of
Mind.” Crown 8vo, 10s. 6d.
“Body and Mind:” An Inquiry into their connection and Mutual In
fluence, especially with reference to Mental Disorders. Second
Edition, enlarged and revised, with Psychological Essays added.
Crown 8vo, 6s. 6d.
Macmillan & Co., London.
SUNDAY LECTURE SOCIETY.
To provide for the delivery on Sundays in the Metropolis, and to encourage
the delivery elsewhere, of Lectures on Science,—physical, intellectual,
and moral,—History, Literature, and Art; especially in their bearing
upon the improvement and social well-being of mankind.
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ARE DELIVERED AT
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Tickets for each series (one for each lecture)—
To the Sixpenny Seats—2s., being at the rate of Threepence each
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For tickets, and the printed Lectures, and for list of all the Lectures
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Payment at the door :—One Penny ;—Sixpence ;—and (Reserved
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�SYLLABUS.
1. The influence of preconceived idea and of feeling to vitiate observation.
Illustrations:
а. Illusions of Sense.
б. Hallucinations of Sense.
c. Erroneous observation.
d. Miracles.
2. The influence of feeling and belief to vitiate reasoning.
a. Individuals.
b. In communities.
3. The relation of feeling to intellect in the progress of the race.
�I
H
?!
�COMMON SOURCE OF ERROR IN
. SEEING AND BELIEVING.
PROPOSE not in this lecture to enumerate and discuss all the
mistakes which we are liable to make when we see and draw
conclusions from what we see—all the fallacies, that is to say, to
which observation and reasoning are exposed; I purpose only to
note and illustrate now one very common and prolific source of
wrong observation and inference. It is certain we do not see and
judge rightly by instinct; too often, although we have eyes, we
see not truly, and although we have reason, we use it to come to
wrong conclusions. Reason, we know, man claims as his almost
exclusive prerogative, defining himself—for he has that advantage
over other animals—as pre-eminently the reasoning animal; and
one need not cavil at the definition so long as it is not understood
to mean that everybody reasons rightly, or even commonly bases
his beliefs upon reason. To say of the great majority of persons
that they reason at all in the highest sense of the word is to say
what is not true, since their opinions are plainly either got by
inheritance, or engrafted by education, or moulded by particular
life-experiences, or imposed by authority of some kind, and are
then worn by them, as they wear their clothes, after the fashion.
Governed by their habits of opinion as they are by their habits of
life they find it as hard a matter to change the one as to change
the other. If all men reasoned truly and adequately on every
subject, it is evident that all men would be agreed, which is not
quite the case; we should not be meeting here this afternoon to
broach opinions which will not be perhaps in harmony with those
which have been preached from a thousand pulpits this morning;
the heresy of yesterday would not be, as it often is, the common
sense of to-day, and the common sense of to-day the nonsense of
to-morrow ; the majority would not have found it necessary to
stone, burn, poison, cut asunder, crucify, or otherwise silence the
voices of the few who, in the succession of the ages, have not
I
�6
Common Source of Error in
failed to appear from time to time to inspire and to raise men to
higher planes of thought and duty; the world would have been
without the history of its noble army of martyrs of humanity.
This being so, it is a good thing, I think, from time to time to
make a particular study of the common errors to which we are
liable in observation and thinking, and to take note how far
wrong they may carry us. My attention is drawn often and
forcibly to this matter, because, in the course of my professional
work, I meet with persons who, of sound understanding in respect
of all ordinary matters, entertain some extraordinary delusions in
respect of one or two subjects, and cannot be convinced of their
errors by the plainest evidence and argument. Naturally one asks
oneself how it comes to pass that they form and entertain notions,
which are absurd to the common sense of mankind, holding to
them in the face of conclusive disproof, and notwithstanding that
they cannot find a single person in the world to agree with them.
The vulgar saying is that they have “ lost their senses,” but it is
not so; their senses are in full work, but somehow they fail to
perform their proper offices. In seeking the explanations of these
remarkable distractions of mind one comes to perceive that, after
all, these people have only carried to an extreme pitch, to an
insane height, a kind of faulty observation and reasoning which
is common enough among persons who are not in the least out of
their minds. ’Tis not true perhaps, as is sometimes said, that
everybody is a little mad, but it is true that everybody makes day
by day the same sort of errors in observation and reasoning as
those which lead madmen to their delusions.
I go at once to the heart of what I have to say by laying down
the broad proposition that in looking at things a person sees what
he believes he sees, not necessarily that which really is: his notion
of what he sees may correspond with the reality or not, but in
any case he does not see the reality purely; he sees it through the
idea or notion which he has of it. Had I been born blind, and
were my eyes opened at this moment for the first time to see a
human face before me, I should not know it to be such by my
sense of sight alone: I know a human face, when I see it, only
because of the training in seeing which has been going on ever
since I was born, the unceasing, if unconscious, education which
I have had. The idea has been organised gradually in my mind—
abstract, so to speak, from a multitude of impressions—and when
it is stirred into activity by the proper impression made upon
sight it instantly interprets that impression, so that I recognise
�s
Seeing and Believing.
7
the object. If my idea were very active and at the same time
*
did not fit the reality, it might mislead sight, making me mistake
the identity of a face which I saw—just as Don Quixote, possessed
with his fixed idea of giants and enchanted castles, mistook the
sails of a windmill for the arms of a giant—or even, in a more
extreme case, making me actually see a face where there was no face
at all. You have perhaps seen a person who has been put into
what is called the mesmeric state and noticed the extraordinary
illusions which he can be made to suffer: the operator bids him
take a glass of simple water, assuring him at the same time that it
is exceedingly bitter and nasty, and he forthwith spits it out as if
it were poison, with every expression of disgust; he is told that a
wasp is buzzing about his face and he instantly makes frantic
movements to strike it away; he is introduced to a stranger as his
mother or sister and he immediately embraces her. There is
scarcely a mistake of sense, however extravagant, of which he
may not be made the victim if he is duly susceptible and the
operator skilful and confident. Now what is it which takes place?
This: the idea suggested by the operator becomes so very active
in the subject’s mind, takes such exclusive possession of it, that all
other ideas are inhibited or silenced; they are inactive, in abey
ance, asleep, so to speak, unable therefore to comment upon or
correct it; accordingly the person sees, hears, or otherwise per
ceives all impressions through the active idea, which interprets
them instantly into the language of its own nature; being the
only part of the mind which is then sensible to stimulus and in
function, it cannot of necessity reveal anything which it does notice
but in terms of itself. The person does not see the real thing but
his notion of what the real thing is ; and that does not in this
case accord with what really is. Here then is an experiment
which plainly shows us that an idea in the mind may reach such a
pitch of exclusive activity as to put to silence other ideas and to
completely befool the senses. It is what happens also to the mad
man who, having the delusion that he is the victim of a malignant
persecution, sees or hears his persecutors pursue or threaten him
where no one else can see or hear anything of them.
I now go a step further and note that something of the same
sort takes place in dreams. When we are asleep we see nothing
* The common saying that “seeing is believing” may then be applied
in a double sense—not Sone in the understood sense that we believe by
what we see, but also in the sense that we see by what we believe.
�8
Common Source of Error in
outside us; our eyes being shut it is impossible we should; never
theless we do see very remarkable scenes if we dream, seeing them
too as if they were outside us and more vividly perhaps than we
do see real things when we are awake. What happens is that the
thoughts of the dreamer as they occur to him become instantly
visible as sensory presentations ; the idea of a thing, so soon as it
becomes active, takes form as the sensible object, is translated into
the outward reality; the idea of a person, for example, becomes
the seen person, the idea of a voice the heard voice, bo before the
dreamer’s eyes as a visible pageant, a scenic show, moves the train
of succeeding ideas; it is as if each vague thought which came
into the mind as we walked along the street absorbed in reverie
was visible as an actual scene ; in which case it is plain we
should be surrounded by an ideal world which would be the real
world to us, while the real world would be faint and shadowy or
quite unperceived. Now this happens the more easily in dreams
for two reasons—first, because the active idea has for the time
almost exclusive possession of the mind, the rest of it being asleep,
and, secondly, because the closure of the senses by sleep to all
outward things, preventing that distraction of them by other
objects which is taking place more or less during waking even in
the deepest reverie, leaves them at the mercy of the idea. Here
there is another instance where an idea or notion vividly experi
enced imposes itself upon sense, becomes an actual hallucination.
Take another case: people don’t see ghosts nowadays when they
go through churchyards by night, as they used often to do in olden
times. Why is that ? ‘ It is because, not believing in ghosts, they
do not expect to see them: they have not in their minds the idea
of a ghost which may step solemnly forth from behind a tombstone
or glide away like a guilty thing ashamed. ’Tis an instance of the
excellent philosophy which is never wanting in Shakspeare, that
he makes Hamlet see his father’s ghost at midnight, when the air
is bitterly cold, not a mouse stirring, on the lonely and rocky
platform before the castle of Elsinore, after he had been informed
in solemnly impressive tones of its previous appearances, when he
himself is there in a tremor of expectation to see it, and immedi
ately after Horatio’s exclamation “ Look, my lord, it comes! ”
Again: there is an event which has happened sometimes to
dying persons, well fitted to make a solemn and startling impres
sion on those about them. When at the point of death or nearly
so, the dying person, gazing intently before him, as if he saw some
one there, may pronounce suddenly the name of a long dead
�Seeing and Believing.
9
relative, exclaim perhaps “ Mother,” and soon after expire. Natu
rally people suppose that the spirit of his dead mother has appeared
to him, and are happy to think that he has joined in a better world
those who were taken away from him in this world. So they take
comfort to themselves when they lose by death one who is near
and dear to them in the belief that although he shall not return to
them they shall go to him. That may or may not be, but certainly
the apparition is not proof of it, since it is no more than one of
the hallucinations which a dying person is liable to have; for when
he is near death and the failing functions of his brain portend
their near impending extinction, wandering thoughts of the far
distant past, impressions of childhood perhaps, seemingly long
effaced, but never actually effaced, may flicker in the mind and,
taking visible form as thoughts take form in dreams, be seen as
visions. You will remember that Shakspeare makes Falstaff,
when dying in a London tavern after a life of the most gross
debauchery, a worn out old libertine, go back in this way to the
memories of more innocent days and “babble of green fields.”*
These broken reversions, as I may call them, are the last ebbing
functions of the brain which, as Shakspeare puts it, then
“ Doth by the idle comments that it makes
Foretell the ending of mortality.”
I might go on to multiply instances of this production of hallu
cination by idea, since they are to be met with in all quarters.
You have heard perhaps that there has lately been an apparition
of the Virgin Mary at Father Ignatius’s Monastery of Llanthonev
Abbey, which was seen first in a meadow by four boys of the
Abbey, after that by a brother of the Abbey, and last of all
by Father Ignatius himself. This is his account of what he
saw:—
“ About eight o’clock on Wednesday evening, the 15th inst. (after
the last service of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin) we all.
* It is very doubtful, however, whether Shakspeare ever wrote what is
now the received text. In the first authentic edition (1823) the words
were not “ ’a babbled of green fields,” but “ a table of green, fields,” which
was nonsense. It was changed by an anonymous critic to “ ’a talked of
green fields,” which Theobald altered into" the present reading. Thirty
years ago, however, an annotated copy of the edition of 1632 was found,
which, among a great number of corrections of the text, substituted for
“ ’a table of green fields,” the words “ on a table of green frieze ”—z.e.,
“ His nose was as sharp as a pen on a table of green frieze.” Dr. Newman
makes use of these discrepancies for the purposes of his argument in
Grammar of Assent (p. 265), and it is from him that I quote them.
�10
Common Source of Error in
came to the porch door. I held the processional crucifix. With
me were the brothers, Mr. Bouse, and a gentleman from Oxford
who had visited the Monastery for the purpose of endeavouring
to see the vision. The boys were kneeling in front of us, Sister
Janet was kneeling in the meadow. It was a very wet night. We
were singing the ‘Aves.’ We had sung three ‘Aves’ in honour
of the Holy Trinity, and we had just finished a fourth to the
Blessed Virgin, when, all of a sudden, when I was not expecting
anything of the kind, I saw a tremendous outburst of light from
the dark, heavy clouds over the farm building. It seemed to
burst right upon the buildings. The light was all in bulging circles.
In the very centre of the light there appeared, coming down upon
us, a human form. It was a very commanding, stately figure.
I could only see sideways. The face was turned towards the bush.
I could only see it momentarily, as it were in the ‘ twinkling of an
eye.’ But in that moment it stood out so distinctly and startling
that I am sure that it was darker than the light. Had it been
clothed in cloth of silver, or cloth of gold, it might have produced
the same effect—the darkness against the light. There was an
intense reality about the figure. It was momentary, as I before
said, and yet it seemed that it might have been an hour’s vision,
so intensely real was it. In the majesty of the figure, and in its
being dark against the light, it reminded me of Dore’s picture,
‘ The triumph of Christianity over Paganism.’ There were
flashings of light about the figure. In a moment, as I looked, it
vanished. Before it vanished it had appeared as if it would have
descended upon the church door or the church roof. I feel sure
that it must have been the figure of the Blessed Virgin, because,
although I could not discern the dress it wore, I could see that it
was fully draped; whereas in the visions which others have seen,
when they have seen a male figure, it has always appeared with
simply a cloth round the loins, as our Lord is represented in
baptism, and at other times. I also feel sure that it was the
Virgin, because the figure appeared immediately after we had
sung the ‘ Ave ’ in her honour. The figure also had its face
turned towards the bush, where our Ladye had first been seen. I
have further confirmation in the fact that about two or three,
minutes afterwards the Blessed Virgin’s figure was seen by the
gentleman who was watching with us, and by one of the boys,
nearer to the ground.” *
South Wales Daily News, September 13th and 27th, 1880.
�Seeing and Believing.
11
“ These,” he says, “ are extraordinary and absolute facts. The
sceptic may and will scoff, but his scoffing will not explain or
diminish the truth or supernatural character of these absolute and
incontrovertible facts * * * No amount of contradiction, ridicule,
or unbelief can alter the fact that Monday, August 30th, 1880, be
tween the hours of 9 and 11 a.m., the Blessed Virgin appeared in
dazzling light to four boys and did what no earthly being could do
before their eyes.” With such positive and incontrovertible testi
mony of eye-witnesses, are you of so little faith as to doubt that
the Blessed Virgin appeared ? Probably you have great doubts, as
I have; and perhaps I may venture to think that I shall carry your
sympathetic doubts with me in my sceptical interpretation of
another vivid vision of an apparition in circumstances particularly
favourable to its occurrence.
The vision in this case happened to a woman whom we may
believe to have been predisposed in some measure to hallucination,
since we are told of her that she had once had seven devils cast
out of her.; a story which, in modern scientific interpretation,
means that she had once been insane and had recovered. • In all
likelihood, therefore, she was one of those persons, susceptible or
sensitive, as mesmerists call them, whose unstably balanced nervecentres were easily liable to take on that sort of irregular action
which issues in hallucination and delusion. The woman I refer
to is Mary Magdalene, who visited the sepulchre of Christ on the
third day after His burial, and who, according to the gospel of St.
John, saw two angels in white sitting, the one at the head and the
other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. I say accord
ing to John, because the stories of the resurrection told by the
writers of the different gospels differ considerably in details;
amongst other things, not agreeing as to whether there was one
angel or whether there were two angels, or as to the persons who
saw the apparition or apparitions. Discrepancies in the stories of
supernatural phenomena are not of course to be wondered at;
they are the natural results of an inspiration more than natural
pouring itself into natural channels. Those, however, whose
understandings are informed by observation and experience of
nature, not by inspiration from outside nature, may suspect
perhaps that Mary Magdalene, having an excitable brain, was the
victim of a hallucination. She ran to the sepulchre in hot excite
ment, eagerly expectant to see something extraordinary, and she
saw something extraordinary: a flitting impression on sight, pro
bably the “ linen clothes lying there, and the napkin that was
�12
Common Source of Error in
about the head not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped
together in a place by itself,” suggested two angels, and the ideas
of the angels so suggested took visible form, dominating the sense,
just as the gleaming whiteness of a tombstone suggesting the idea
of a ghost to the walker through a churchyard by night was trans
formed instantly into a ghost.
This dominion of the idea over the senses, which has its con
summate effect in the production of hallucination, is really the most
fruitful source of error and defect in common observation, an ever
active, and never to be neglected, cause of fallacy. Men see not
the reality purely, but see it in the coloured light of the notions
which they have of it. Hence no two persons see an event exactly
alike; two witnesses go into the witness-box and give widely dif
ferent accounts of the same transaction at which they were present
together; two newspaper reporters, of different politics, believing
themselves sincere and truthful, send home to their respective
employers nearly opposite accounts of the same occurrences ; in
each case there is the individual mind behind the eye. Has any
one got a belief, no matter how he got it—whether through his
understanding, as he flatters himself he gets all his beliefs, or
through his feelings, as he actually gets most of them—his mind
yields willing access to all facts which are in keeping with it, and
very unwilling access to any fact which does not consist with it,
insomuch that the belief comes to determine much of what he sees,
to govern his actual observation of things. The stronger, more
over, the feeling associated with a preconceived idea or belief, the
more completely does it rule sense and vitiate observation. What
infatuated lover ever fails to see “ Helen’s beauty in a brow of
Egypt?” What excited onlooker at a spectacle of horror could
ever give an accurate account of it ? At one time it was a firmlyrooted superstition that the wounds on the body of a murdered
person would bleed afresh when the murderer was made to touch
the corpse, and witnesses testified frequently to having seen that
happen. Two respectable clergymen, for example, swore at a trial
in the time of Charles I. (1628-9) that the body having been taken
out of the grave and laid on the grass, thirty days after death, and
one of the parties accused of murder required to touch it, “the
brain of the dead began to have a dew or gentle sweat arise on it,
which increased by degrees till the sweat ran down in drops on
the face; the brow turned to a lively flesh-colour, and the deceased
-opened one of her eyes and shut it again ; and this opening of the
eye was done three several times ; she likewise thrust out the ring,
�Seeing and Believing.
13
Or marriage finger, three times, and pulled it in again; and the
finger dropped blood from it on the grass.” Here was evidence
against the accused which, if true, must have convinced even him
that he ought to be hanged. Of course, it was not true; the
witnesses, however, were not wilfully or wittingly deceiving, they
were themselves deceived; they saw not the real thing, but the
imagination of what the real thing was. One may be permitted
to judge, by this example, of the value of the unsifted testimony
of the believer who has seen a miracle. ’Tis not that he has
really seen a miracle, but that he has made a miracle of what he
has mis-seen.
,lt may be urged perhaps in respect of miracles that it is ex
tremely improbable, if not impossible, that several persons attest
ing them could be deceived in the same way at the same time. On
the contrary, nothing more easy in certain circumstances : a great
wave of emotion passing through a number of people, as emotion
does pass by the quick infection of sympathy, will carry belief with
it and make them see and testify to a quite impossible occurrence.
Hence miracles have always abounded where there was a great
fever of religious enthusiasm. The greater the heat of feeling the
less the coolness of observation and the more plentiful the mira
cles. Hay, it needs not much heat of feeling to see a miracle if a
number of persons be collected together intently expecting to see
something extraordinary happen: the ghost seldom fails to appear
where the spectators are gathered together to see it. Every
religion has had its miracles and its multitudinous witnesses to
them. We do not believe it any the more on that account; we
ought indeed to believe it rather the less, since the miracle is pre
sumption, if not proof, of bad observation by the witnesses. The
lowest religion will have the most miracles, a higher religion will
have few of them, and the highest of all will probably have none
at all. What we may fairly conclude from the testimony of hot
believers is that, by reason of their strong belief, they were not
witnesses to be depended upon, as observers. The interest of
miracles at this day, I take it, is not that which could attach to an
occurrence out of the fixed order of nature, but that which attaches
to the study of the defective, irregular, or actually morbid action
of the human brain, especially under conditions of unusual excite
ment ; it is not whether the body of a dead man which had lain in
the grave until it had begun to putrefy came to life again, but why
people thought and said so. When the belief in miracles has
become extinct they will be received by psychology into its domain
�14
Common Source of Error in
and they will be of lasting interest there. Indeed, it will be a
most instructive study of the future to elucidate and set forth the
exact relations of beliefs in supernatural phenomena to defective
or morbid functions of the brain. Supernaturalism will take its
proper place as an interesting chapter in psychology.
Thus much then with regard to the action which idea may exert
upon the senses; an action plainly so strong sometimes as to sub
due them into a complete subjection to it. In any case it is almost
impossible for one who has a preconceived notion in his mind to
help seeing in an event that only which is agreeable to the notion,
that which sorts or suits with it. Those who have not thought of
this tendency as an active source of fallacy in observation, and
realised how deeply, widely, constantly and unconsciously it works
are not qualified to weigh the value of testimony; they are like
those who should accept without question an assertion that the
trees and grass were blue from one who was looking at the country
through blue spectacles. To denote, moreover, this action of idea
upon sense vaguely as imagination or even as mental carries us no
further forward; to rest satisfied there is simply to make a word
do duty for a conception; there is neither explanation nor definite
meaning in the statement. Whether we like it or not, we shall
have to acknowledge, first or last, that the process is at bottom
physical, and that we can have no explanation worth thinking
about until we find out what the physical basis is. Unhappily we
are yet a long way from that discovery; we must be satisfied for
the present to figure grossly to ourselves what takes place in the
intimate, most delicate and hidden operations of nerve molecules,
by the help of conceptions derived from the grosser operations in
physics which we can observe and manipulate. When the impres
sion on sense vibrates to the same note as the idea, we may say, it
is perceived and intensifies the idea—that is to say, is assimilated
mentally; when it does not vibrate in unison with it there is no
response, it is not perceived; the active idea responds to the note
that is in harmony with it, just as the string of a harp gives back
in consonant vibrations its proper note when that note is struck
near it.
I proceed now to mark the operation of the same sort of error
in the higher region of thought—in reasoning, that is, about what
we get from the senses when we have got the facts correctly.
Even then we are liable to go all wrong in the opinions or infer
ences which we form. The predominant bias sways the judgment.
Two persons shall have the same facts presented to them, and
�Seeing and Believing.
15
shall not differ as to the facts, yet it is notorious that they will,
according to the bias of their respective opinions, feelings, interests,
differ widely in the conclusions they draw from them, just as two
judges will give very unequal sentences for the same kind of
offence. How is it that the one sees a conclusion plainly and
thinks the other, who does not see it, blinded by prejudice to the
most obvious truth ? The reason of course is that each looks at
the circumstances from his own standpoint, and sees only or
mainly that which is in accord with the bias of his mind, over
looking that which is not; he sees vividly the reasons which
support his opinion, and which the other sees dimly or not at all;
he sees only dimly, or not at all, the reasons which go counter to
it, and which the other sees vividly. Now, how would a third
person,'undertaking to bring these two to the same conclusion, go
about to accomplish it ? Certainly he would not treat them as
purely reasoning beings, and encourage them to go on arguing, by
which they would only heat themselves the more, but he would
handle each as if he was anything but an exact reasoning being;
he would not consider only the truth of what he had to say to
him, but would take account of his feelings, principles, prejudices,
character, and endeavour to bring this truth into the best relations
possible with these predominant lines of disposition, making it
pleasing or agreeable—that is to say, able to agree—and so to get
it accepted; he would in fact persuade by agreeing more than by
convincing, remembering the adage—
•
“ A man convinced against his will
Is of the same opinion still.”
Dealing in this insinuating way with both he brings them gently
and skilfully over their difference to the same conclusion, and that
the right conclusion if the affair be properly managed. One must
have the feelings of a person engaged in favour of reason before he
can see reason, must prejudice him in favour of an argument
before he can feel the force of it. Is not this a proof how very far
man is from being the good reasoning machine which he imagines
himself?
There is not a day, not an hour of the day perhaps, in any
one’s life which does not yield examples of this sort of biassed
or one-sided perception and reasoning. The moods of the moment
notably colour strongly our views of the character or issue of an
event, notwithstanding that the dry light of reason ought to
demonstrate a plain and certain conclusion. Optimism or pessi
mism is a matter of temperament, not of reason; life-despair may
�16
Common Source of Error in
be the intellectual expression, and suicide the outcome in act, of
deranged organic feeling in a sadly tuned temperament. In that
extreme state of morbid depression of mind which we call
melancholia the sufferer cannot perceive a ray of hope, a glimmer
of comfort anywhere; he sees every undertaking, every scheme,
moving towards the same goal of ruin; he can follow the argu
ments which prove that his fears are groundless, but they produce
no effect upon him ; they reach his understanding, but they do
not touch his gloom-enshrouded heart, and accordingly they “ no
more avail than breath against the wind.” Assuredly we credit
ourselves with a great deal larger measure of reason in the forma
tion and change of our beliefs than ever enters into them. On
the one hand, strong and convincing argument will sometimes not
compel belief; on the other hand, a change will sometimes take
place in an individual’s belief, while the reasons in favour of it are
as strong as ever; as Cardinal Newman has remarked, he does
not know how or when the belief has gone, but he finds out some
day that it is gone ; the perception of the old argument remains,
but some change in feeling in himself arising out of condition, age,
interests, occupation, &c., has worked a change of belief.
I shall not go on now to give any more illustrations from
individual experience, because I am anxious, in the time which
remains at my disposal, to point out how this source of error
in reasoning infects the belief of whole peoples, and leads them
to the most illogical conclusions. Do we not oftentimes see
nations swept by epidemics of feeling and belief, good or bad?
Have wars been rational undertakings, or have they not been, in
nine cases out of ten, the results of insane suspicion and insaner
folly ? When one looks quietly back at the history of man’s
thoughts and doings upon earth, considering at the same time
his claim to be pre-eminently a reasoning animal, it is impossible
to help being amazed at the utterly irrational belief which pro
fessedly rational beings have formed and sincerely cherished.
More wonder, perhaps, that as they were so irrational as to form
and hold them they were ever rational enough to get rid of them.
It may be said, no doubt, that as they got better knowledge they
abandoned them, but I doubt whether knowledge has nearly so
much to do directly with human progress as we are in the easy
habit of assuming. It has always been as positive a piece of
knowledge as it is now that every one must die—that to be mortal
is not to be immortal—and that when a person is dead and buried
he does not come to life again ;■ that certainly is as long and sure
�Seeing and Believing.
17
an experience as human beings have had, since it dates from the
beginning of experience ; yet, in spite of that experience, the
greater part of those ranking amongst the most civilized and
enlightened of the earth, and marking therefore the highest water
mark of human progress, solemnly believe at this moment that
there have been men’ who have not died, and others who, after
being dead, have come to life again. And at great expense, and
through many perils, they send missionaries into all parts of the
earth to teach that wisdom to those whose sad ignorance of it
they compassionate. The very creed of the Christian is that the
God whom he worships became a man, was crucified on the cross,
died and was buried, and on the third day rose again and ascended
into heaven. That is a matter of solemn belief, but can we truly
say that it is a matter of rational knowledge ? Looked at in the
dry light of the understanding, we must admit that there could
not well be a doctrine more improbable, more revolting to reason.
How it strikes the unbiassed minds of those who have not been
trained from youth upwards to accept it we know by the experience
of the Jesuit missionaries in China, who found the dogma of a
crucified God so great an obstacle in the way of conversions that
they quietly suppressed it; they preached Jesus Christ triumphant,
not Jesus Christ crucified. It is beyond question then that there
is in man a power deeper and stronger than knowledge which
decides in some cases what he shall believe, and that the most
complete contradiction of observation and reason which it is
possible to conceive can be accepted as a solemn truth, if it be in
harmony with the prevailing tone or feeling of mind. Thereupon
all the powers of the understanding are brought into play, not to
prove it by a searching trial of its worth, but in order to find out
reasons why it should be believed. Meanwhile, all the reasons in
the world against it will not seriously touch it so long as there is
no fundamental change of feeling: when that takes place, how
ever, the whole fabric of belief tumbles easily to pieces without
any serious assault being made upon it. So far from rational im
probability being a difficulty to theological faith, the greater the
mystery the greater the faith of the true believer, until he reaches
the logical climax of sublime credulity in the acceptance of
Tertullian’s maxim—Credo quia impossibile est, I believe it because
it is impossible.
Look back for a moment at the beginnings of Christianity.
How little had knowledge to do with its origin and progress! It
was born of the heart, not of the understanding of mankind, in the
�18
Common Source of Error in
stable not in the Academy or the Lyceum. The great and learned
of that time looked down on it with scorn as a pernicious supersti
tion, and it found acceptance among the poor and ignorant, the
publicans and sinners.
*
Let us note well the meaning of that:
the greatest revolutionary—or rather evolutionary—force which
has moved human society was not the product of the intellect, but
was an outcome of a glowing feeling of the universal brotherhood
of mankind; a feeling so deep and strong and true that it has
inspired and kept alive to this day many beliefs which outrage the
understanding. Can we believe then that the next great revolu
tionary force which shall move society afresh will spring from the
understanding and be governed by its rules? It needs little
reflection, I think, to show that a great social reform will never
come from a Senate or a House of Lords or other sort of upper
chamber, however cultivated and benevolent its members. No;
the impulse will come deep out of the heart of the people,
announcing itself many times beforehand no doubt in blind
yearnings, in wild explosions of social discontent, perhaps in reck
less uprisings of turbulence and violence, a great unreflecting
force, which it should be the function of intelligence to guide in
the right way. You may stop a revolution which has been
hatched in the intellect, by cutting off the heads of the few who
have knowledge; you will never stop a revolution which has been
bred in the heart of the people by cutting off their heads. Instead
of denouncing •wildly the social interest and visionary aspirations
which find outlets in communistic, socialistic, nihilistic, and
similar doctrines and disorders, it would be more wise to try to
understand their meaning; since it may be they are the blind,
* “ It is profitable to remind ourselves,” says Dr. Newman, “ that our Lord
Himself was a sort of smith, and made ploughs and cattle-yokes. Four
Apostles were fishermen, one a petty-tax collector, two husbandmen, one
is said to have been a coachman, and another a market gardener.” Peter
and John are spoken of as “ illiterate men and of the lower sort.” Their
converts were of the same rank. They are, says Celsus, “ weavers, shoe
makers, fullers, illiterate clowns.” “Fools, low-born fellows,” says
Trypho. “ Men collected from the lowest dregs of the people; ignorant,
credulous women; ” “ unpolished, boors, illiterate, ignorant even of the
sordid arts of life; they do not understand civil matters, how can they
understand divine ? ” says Coecilius. “ They deceive women, servants and
slaves,” says Julian. The Fathers themselves give similar testimony as to
their brethren. “ Ignorant men, mechanics, and old women,” says Athenagoras. “They are gathered,” says Jerome, “not from the Academy or
the Lyceum, but from the low populace.” Of meaner sort and more de
spised than the Communisis of Paris; and yet they overturned the world!
�Seeing and Believing.
19
instinctive, dimly prophetic impulses of a truth which, coming
from the suffering and brooding heart of society, lies deeper than
knowledge and which knowledge will one day have to reckon
with. No man’s intellect measures his character; from the un
fathomed depths of his being comes not only that which he shall
feel and do but in great measure also that which he shall think.
So it is with humanity as a whole. It is feeling which inspires
and stirs its great pulses, the intellect fashioning the moulds into
which the feeling shall flow. How momentously important then
that the people should have understanding, should learn know
ledge, so that neither craft of superstition, nor craft of ruler, nor
any other craft may again take possession of its forces and turn
them to its profit!
We are so comfortably confident of the stability of our progress
in these days that we do not give the heed we should to the lessons
of the past and consider seriously, as we might well do from time
to time, to what destructive issues uninstructed popular feeling
may one day carry us. There can be little doubt that each of the
mighty nations of the past believed that its kingdom would endure
and that it was impossible its gains should ever be lost to man
kind. But Home, and Greece, and Egypt are now but the
shadows of great names, and the once powerful Empires of the
East have disappeared so completely that even the places where
their mighty cities stood are hardly known. We may be sure that
there were sagacious men in each of these dead nations who fore
saw the end, perceived the causes that were leading straight to it,
and raised their unregarded voices in warning to the people. But
it is the eternal fate of Cassandra to be unheeded. In vain are the
most obvious truths preached to a people possessed by an impulse
of feeling with which, they are not in harmony; the nation which
is declining to its fall is as deaf to the admonitions of the few
thoughtful men who perceive and try to stay its course of folly
as it is blind to the plainest lessons of its own experience;
elementary principles of morality and the commonest maxims of
prudence go down alike before the current of feeling, and the
audacious charlatan who most cleverly flatters, fans, and directs
its sentiments is acclaimed and obeyed as a hero. This has
always been so, and it would be taking much too hopeful a view
of human nature to believe that it will not be so again. In spite
of all the gains of modern knowledge, which we think so certain,
but which, after all, are the real work and possession of only a
few, it is not at all out of the range of possible occurence that a
�20
Common Source of Error in
great turbid wave of superstition may overflow and overwhelm our
civilization, as other civilizations have been overwhelmed before it.
Do you think perhaps that the foundations of modern knowledge
are laid so deep and sure that it is incredible that they should ever
be swept away? Well, it is a very sanguine belief: one might
have thought it as sure a truth as could well be that a person once
dead will not come to life again, but while multitudes believe the
opposite of that very plain experience, are the foundations of
belief so very sure ? Men are not moved by knowledge, let me
say again, but by feeling, and were a strong wave of superstitious
feeling to pass through them they would see and believe nothing
that was not in harmony with it, would see and believe every
thing that was in harmony with it, would move on, until it was
spent, a huge devastating force, so far as pure reason was
concerned.
There is something too much of complacent self-deception in the
loud praise which we give to pure truth and in the high-flown devo
tion which we loudly profess to it; we make up by our theoretical
enthusiasm for it for much practical dislike and intolerance of it.
Truth is not so acceptable as illusion, since we live in perpetual
illusion, deceived and deceiving. We seem what we are not, and
make others believe that we think them what they are not. No
one speaks the truth sincerely to another, or talks of him in his
presence as he does in his absence. There is no one who would
not think himself grossly insulted if he had truth told of him, nor
would any one who adopted the practice of speaking the truth
always find it easy to keep himself out of an asylum. We hate the
speaker of truth, although the truth which hurts our self-love may
be most useful to us; and love the flatterer, although we know the
flattery to be false and injurious. The ardent profession which
we make of a love of pure truth is itself a comfortable illusion
which we create for ourselves. From cradle to grave we are occu
pied—wisely, I dare say—in nursing our illusions, putting away
one, when we have worn it out, to take up another more fitting
the new desires which experience and years give us. If a person
really believed at the outset of life, as he knows at the end of it,
that all is vanity and vexation of spirit, would he have sufficient
motive to live ? Had there been no illusory prospect of Elysian
fields, or happy hunting grounds, or other sort of paradise beyond
the miseries of this world, where those who had suffered much and
unjustly here might hope to find recompense, one may doubt
almost whether faith in virtue could have been kept alive, whether
�Seeing and Believing.
21
the social organism, would have held together ; at any rate, thou
sands of dreary lives would have been more dreary than they were,
thousands of self-sacrifices of work, of wealth, of duty, would never
have been made, the hopes, aspirations, and' prayers which have
consoled and sustained thousands of heavy-laden hearts would not
have been. What then will be the consequence if science, as it
seems to threaten, shatters these hopes as illusions ? Will the
multitude be able to bear the pain, to face the fearful void, of so
great a loss ? Will man be able to live what the Bishop of Peter
borough has described lately as “ a joyless existence, uncheered by
the hope of a happier hereafter, undignified by the consciousness of
divine descent and the heirship of immortality,” if science makes
him sincerely realise, as it seems to be going to work to do, that
he has no hope whatever of a happier hereafter, that his descent is
not divine but simian, that his last heirship is the corruption of
the grave ? Will not the bereaved people, craving for something
to satisfy the needs of the heart which knowledge cannot give, fly
for refuge in despair to some creed or church in which they may
find again the hopes, and consolation, and support of which they
have been robbed ?
Here lies the strength of the position of the Church of Rome.
Possessing an organization the most complete which the world
has ever known, served by its ministers with a devotion which
counts nothing gain that is not its gain, inspired with the theory
that the meanest human soul is worthy of all its energies, it offers
what seems a safe haven of refuge in the midst of the surging tur
moil of doubts, perplexities, and despair, the perfect rest of absolute
truth delivered into its keeping from the beginning: Come unto
me, might be its cry, all ye that are weary of spirit, with many
doubts and heavyladen of heart with the burden of your fears,
and I will give yon rest.
*
It is admirably adapted by its organi
* “ Thus it is sometimes spoken of as a hardship that a Catholic is not
allowed to inquire into the truth of his Creed; of course he cannot if he
would retain the name of believer. He cannot be both inside and outside
of the Church at once. It is merely common sense to tell him that, if he
is seeking, he has not found. If seeking includes doubting, and doubting
excludes believing, then the Catholic who sets about inquiring thereby
declares that he is not a Catholic. He has already lost faith.”
J. H. Newman, Grammar of Assent, p. 184.
“ For, since we have the truth, and truth cannot change, how can we
possibly change in our belief, except indeed through our own weakness
or fickleness.” p. 186.
�iMMMiMM*
22
Common Source of Error in
zation, its ordinances, and its doctrine to respond to all the appeals
of the weak side of human nature. And I make no doubt many
will flee to it in the coming conflicts. But not of the people, we
may predict; not of the masses which constitute the foundation
and strength of the social organism. Its converts will come from
the tired votaries of fashion, weary of the dreary frivolities of
their lives, and eager to replace their exhausted desires by new
sentiments; from those who are educated enough to perceive
difficulties and perplexities of thought, without being courageous
and capable enough to face them sincerely and to think them out
thoroughly; from those again who, in the mortal struggle of new
thought for existence, have not the strength of understanding and
character to stay through the course, but falling by the wayside,
eagerly in their need lay hold of the helping hand which authority
holds out to them. These and the like are the classes from which
its converts will mainly come. The strong pulsations of popular feel
ing which make themselves felt in different nations, have no affini
ties with the Church of Rome nor has it shown the least sympathy
with them ; on the contrary they are essentially hostile to it, since
it has committed what seems to an outsider the fatal mistake of
allying itself with caste, privilege, power, and of alienating the
great liberal forces with which lies the determination of the
future : Catholic in name it has lost all claim to be Catholic in
fact. It is a rash thing to prophesy, but if I may venture a
prophesy here, it is that it will be by these great popular forces,
not by the knowledge of the learned, that it will be overthrown in
the final struggle. The French Revolution, momentous as an
event, was perhaps more momentous as a prophesy.
If what I have said thus far be true, what is the function of
those who have faith in the future of mankind, who are sanguine
enough to nurse enthusiastic hopes of its glorious destiny ? As
suredly to work well together, while it is time, to enlighten the
giant, so that when he puts forth his strength he may use it wisely,
to give him the understanding to direct his might in the right way.
Although intellect does not move the world it should guide directly
the forces which do move it, and so modify indirectly, as it will by
degrees, the deeper sources in which they take their instinctive
origin. One thing is certain whatever else may be doubtful: that
the true and honest method to pursue is directly the opposite of
that which the Churches have striven to enforce; it is not to incul
cate credulity, to stifle doubt, to foster prejudice, in order that the
beliefs which are may continue to be. That method we know to be
�Seeing and Believing.
23
false. It is to seek truth and pursue it, at whatever cost, whether
it bring us sorrow or joy, peace or tribulation. Doubt, be it never
so disquieting, must go before enquiry, and enquiry before the
discovery of new truth. Scepticism is guilt in the eyes only of those
who fear truth, since it is the essential prerequisite of it. It is
impossible to foresee what fate the future has in store for the race
of man on earth; one may fain hope a more peaceful and happy
career than that which he has had in the past, since to look back
through his history from the beginning unto now is to look back
through succeeding chapters of wars, treachery, tortures, cruelties
and atrocities of all sorts and degrees by which “ man’s inhumanity
to man” has “made countless thousands mourn;” a spectacle of
horrors so appalling that, could we compass it in imagination, it
might well warrant the belief, if matters ended now, of a malevo
lent, not a benevolent, scheme of creation. We shall do well to
cherish the hope, or if not the hope the illusion, that matters will
not end here; that a brighter day will come when knowledge and
peace shall spread through the whole earth, and man’s humanity
to man leave few to mourn; that the past traditions of a golden
age, when all was plenty and peace, and the later aspirations for
a Paradise to come, in which sorrow and sin shall be no more,
may be not entire fable and illusion, but essentially dim fore
feelings, the prophetic instincts, of that which one day shall have
a measure of fulfilment upon earth.
�
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Common source of error in seeing and believing: a lecture delivered before the Sunday Lecture Society, St George's Hall, Langham Place, on Sunday Afternoon, 27th February 1881
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Maudsley, Henry [1835-1918]
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 23 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Contains bibliographical references. Publisher's series list on unnumbered pages at the end.
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Miracles
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Christian church
Fallacies
Miracles
New Testament
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Text
I
CONCERNING MIRACLES.
By THOMAS BREVIOR.
Reprinted from the “ Spiritual Magazine,” October, 1872.
---------- ♦----------“ Absolutely speaking, in the strict and philosophical sense, either nothing is
miraculous, namely, if we have respect to the power of God; or, if we regard
our own power and understanding, then almost everything—as well what we call
natural as what we call supernatural—is in this sense really miraculous; and it
is only usualness or unusualness that makes the distinction."—Dr. Clarke On
the Attributes, &c.
“ God’s miraculous interpositions may have been all along, by general laws
of wisdom." “ There may be beings to whom the whole Christian dispensation
may appear as natural as the visible known course of things appears to
us.”—Butler’s Analogy.
“ Miracles imply no suspension of the laws of nature . . The interposition
of superior power implied in a miracle, too, may be entirely natural.”—
Dr. Price, Four Dissertations.
“ A miracle may be said to take place when, under certain moral circum
stances, a physical consequent follows upon an antecedent which general
experience shows to have no natural aptitude for producing such a consequent;
or, when a consequent fails to follow upon an antecedent which is always
attended by that consequent in the ordinary course of nature.”—Smith's
Dictionary of the Bible.
The recent correspondence on Miracles in the Spiritual
Magazine is but one of many illustrations which this subject
presents of the truth of the statement of the late Professor De
Morgan, that the greater part of the controversies of mankind
are due either to ambiguity in the use of terms or to the
assumption of certain “ first principles” adopted as self-evident
truths. Indeed, it not infrequently happens, as in the subject of
the present inquiry, that these too fruitful sources of misunder
standing and of error run into each other; that the common
term is used in different senses by different writers because in
truth it does not simply represent an alleged fact, but the philo
sophy, theory, or belief which those writers severally entertain
concerning it. Hence, there are writers who, like Mr. Atkinson,
A
�recommend that wo should abandon the term “miracle” altogether.
The suggestion, however, apart from all other considerations, is
impracticable; the term is too deeply rooted in our thought and
language to be voted out of use. It is true that, after all the
controversies on this question, no common agreement has been
reached as to what constitutes a miracle: it is vain in this matter
to appeal to the authority of lexicographers or to begin by
defining terms, for the term is the symbol we use to express
the outcome of the whole matter as it finally presents itself to
our minds; nor, as it seems to me, can we all use the same term
in the same sense, and in no other, so long as our conclusions on
the subject designated by it are so widely different.
Must then all attempt at agreement be abandoned as hope
less? Must this confusion of tongues ever prevail, so that, like
the builders of Babel, we may not understand each other’s speech,
and when we ask for brick receive a stone ? I hope we arc
not so shut up in this dilemma, but that some way out of it may
be found. Suppose that instead of defining our term at the
outset, and implying thereby a foregone conclusion, we in the
first instance consider whether or no there is reasonable ground
for believing that as a matter of fact any such events as have
been called miracles have taken place, apart from any theory or
inferences, or reference to the question whether they should be
called miracles or not;—questions to be reserved for subsequent
consideration.
And I suppose it will be generally conceded, and even
insisted on by the unbelievers, that we should if possible test
the question by reference to facts of the present, rather than
those of the past; as the former are more open to investi
gation : living witnesses can be confronted and cross-examined,
their qualifications ascertained, and their evidence compared and
sifted. There is also this further advantage, that whatever may
have been the case with regard to past ages, the present is cer
tainly not marked by excessive credulity on the subject, but is
by comparison scientific and enlightened. How are facts of this
class to be determined ? How are any facts of which our know
ledge depends on the senses to be determined? First, by
observation (which may include experiment), and secondly, by
testimony. All possible evidence of such facts may be comprised
under these two heads ; the former is evidence at first hand, and
can be had only by those who were present at the time and place
where the event took place, or could be witnessed. Their state
ments on the subject is testimony, and though this second-hand
evidence is inferior to the other, it may be so strong as to leave
us without reasonable doubt—so strong indeed, that the life or
death of men is determined by it.
�3
The evidence of modern u miracles” is of both kinds,
and of both in the strongest degree. Take, for example, the
recent Report of the Committee of the London Dialectical Society.
This Committee report that they received evidence from 33
persons who described phenomena which they stated had occurred
within their own personal experience. The Committee further
received written statements relating to the phenomena from 31
persons. These phenomena include nearly the whole range of
what is called “ spiritual manifestations,” and which need not
here be enumerated. No exception can be taken to the
witnesses, among whom arc persons of high social standing,
members of the learned professions, and men who have achieved
marked distinction in literature and science ; and their testimony
is corroborated by the Committee, who state that “ a large
majority” of their members “ have become actual witnesses of
several phases of the phenomena without the aid or presence of
any professional medium, although the greater part of them
commenced their investigations in an avowedly sceptical spirit.”
And this evidence is but a small fraction of the entire body
of evidence relating to the phenomena which has been pouring
in without intermission from every class and every land for the
past quarter of a century. In short, as Professor Challis has
said, “ the testimony has been so abundant and consentaneous
that either the facts must be admitted to be such as they are
reported, or the possibility of certifying facts by testimony must
be given up.” So far as concerns the facts in question, the last
alternative is indeed adopted by the sturdy, thorough-going
sceptic, for he feels truly that it is the only consistent ground
left for him to take. Why docs he prefer to occupy so ex
treme and desperate a position, rather than admit the alleged
facts, supported as they are by the testimony to like facts of men
of every age and creed ’? The answer is, that to admit them
would be to admit the existence of u miracles,” and that miracles
are impossible. If we ask why impossible, we are told that
they are contrary to the Order of Nature, that they are a violation
of the laws of Nature, that these laws are proved by the constant
and uniform experience of mankind, and that they are never
departed from.
Here we approach the heart of the question, the alleged facts
are rejected, not because of the insufficiency of the evidence, but
because it is thought they conflict with a preconceived theory of
the Order of Nature. Let it be shown that miracles, or spiritual
manifestations, belong to this established “ Order;” that like the
winds and tides and seasons they are subject to the operation of
natural laws; that, in fine, they are only a branch of natural
science, and the philosophy of our time would lay down its
A 2
�4
weapons of attack and welcome tills wido extension of tlie
domain of science.
In this temper of mind, however, we sec only the illustration
of that fallacious principle of reasoning pointed out by Professor
De Morgan, of testing alleged facts not by their proven evidence,
but by their supposed harmony or disagreement with assumed
“ first principles,” or “ self-evident truths ;” a principle always
arrayed against every new and great advancement of human
knowledge, for in every age men have regarded the established
theory of the universe as the Order of Nature, and as a conse
quence have held that whatever could not be brought into
harmony with such theory must be false. One would have
thought that in these days when the inductive philosophy is so
extolled, that its practice would not be so widely departed
from as it is when the evidence is presented of facts which run
counter to existing theories. The sceptical philosophy of our
time will not even entertain the discussion of a “ psychic force,”
still less of an invisible intelligence from behind the veil
which controls and governs it; in its view Spiritualism is a
strange portentous apparition, and our philosophers will not “ as
a stranger give it welcome,” lest they should “ entertain an
angel unawares.” Miracles, angels, spirits, these are terms the
sceptical philosophy would banish from its vocabulary. The
belief in these, and especially as having any place or part in our
midst now, is regarded as a vulgar superstition which science
has exploded, and philosophy is in no hurry to confess its
mistake in this respect and to read its recantation.
But here, to the wise caution given by an inveterate sceptic
to distinguish carefully between facts and inferences, I may add
that it is unphilosophical to reject any fact because of the
inference to which that fact may lead. The first essential to
determine is whether the alleged occurrences arc truly facts ;
and until this point is decided any question as to their cause or
as to the name by which they should be designated is premature,
and confuses the enquiry.
And if, divesting our minds for the time of all other con
siderations, we limit our enquiry to this single issue, the point is
surely not difficult to determine. The motion of heavy bodies
and the production of sounds without muscular contact or
mechanical contrivance, and the employment of these as a code
of signals by which questions arc answered and communications
spelt out, facts correctly given wholly unknown at the time to
any one present; the elevation of the human body, and its
suspension or movement in the air without visible or tangible
support; the introduction of fruits, flowers, birds, ice, snow,
and other objects into closed rooms previously searched and
�5
locked; the appearance of hands not appertaining to any human
being in the flesh, but life-like in appearance and mobility, and
which have been grasped by some of those who witnessed them;
the application of red-hot coals to the hands and heads of
persons without pain or scorching; the elongation and contraction
of the human body; the playing airs on musical instruments
with no person touching them; the speaking fluently in languages
utterly unknown to the speaker; the information of future events,
which have taken place at the very hour and even minute that
had been foretold; the production of writings and drawings
without human intervention, and “ in so short a time and under
such conditions as to render human agency impossiblethese
things and much more of the like kind are none the less matters
of observation because they arc unusual. It requires no great
scientific training to see whether a table is in motion or at rest;
whether a man is standing on the ground or in the air ; whether
in a closed room some object (sav for instance a cocoa-nut, as
happened to the writer of this article), is at your request placed
in your hand, and which you know was not there before ; and
though we have the testimony of an F.S.A., a barrister-at-law,
and other witnesses, that burning coal was placed on their heads
and hands without scorching or pain; yet we suppose Hodge
the ploughman could as well testify to such a fact if it occurred
in his experience as could the President of the lloyal Society.
Now, whether these things, are true is not a matter of
speculation to be settled on a priori grounds by a considera
tion of probabilities; the typical instances enumerated are not
hypothetical; they are all affirmed in evidence before the Com
mittee of the Dialectical Society, and as stated by the Committee,
u many of the witnesses of the more extraordinary facts arc of
high character and great intelligence;” and in this respect they
are representatives of hundreds of witnesses to facts of the same
kind all the world over. Moreover, many of these facts are
demonstrable, because reproducible.
In what other way can such facts be proved, nay, what kind
of proof can be imagined as applicable to them, save that of
observation and testimony? If this kind of evidence be not
valid, to what other court can the appeal be made? Am I
referred to the “ Laws of Nature?” What are these laws but
simply observed facts which, as we are told, “ a uniform
experience has established,” and which it is further said u are
never departed from?” This, indeed, is the standing philo
sophical objection to miracles and to Spiritualism. But if
observation, the evidence of the senses, and the testimony
founded thereon are impugned as delusive and untrustworthy,
what reliance can we place on these “ Laws of Nature,” which
�6
rest on the same foundation ? If it be replied that in this case
the evidence is so much stronger than the other, the principle of
our argument is conceded. It is then a question only of degree;
and if there is any insufficiency in the evidence, or any fatal
flaw in it, let it be pointed out after careful review (as far as
practicable) of all the evidence in the case. Till this is done, I
feel justified, both from many years’ personal investigation and
from careful survey of the evidence, in considering these startling
facts of our time as fully proved. At all events in reasoning with
Spiritualists (for whom this paper is chiefly written) I may with
out further reference assume them as the basis of my argument.
The “ Laws of Nature”—this phrase, so constantly dinned
into our ears,—is again a term used with such difference of
meaning, and with such difference in the ideas which underlie it,
as to cause much misunderstanding in controversies on this
question. What do we mean by Nature? I do not ask what
is Nature ? that is another question. I remember in my youth
to have met with a hymn to Nature in a Socialist hymn-book,
which began with the couplet:—
What Nature is no mortal knows,
And, therefore, none can tell.
But I suppose even our logical poet would admit that if we
employ the term Nature we may tell what we mean by it.
“ Oh, we all understand well enough what we mean by it,” says
the simple reader. Don’t be too sure of that, my friend. I
know of no term more elastic or more variously employed in
philosophical discussion. It is the master-word; understand
clearly what a writer means by it and you have a clue to his
whole system of philosophy ; it is the key-stone of the entire
edifice. This whole question of miracles, I am convinced, turns
upon the conception we entertain of Nature, and all our talk
about its laws and order, and about what is possible and im
possible, is so much beating the air until we arrive at some
common understanding on this point.
In particular there are two widely different conceptions of
Nature, with of course corresponding differences of signification
in their employment.
There are many, and even some Spiritualists, who by Nature
mean not alone the physical universe with all that appertains to
it, its solids, fluids, gases and ethers, its minerals and metals, its
flora and fauna, its elements, products, forces and phenomena,
however widely extended and variously distributed, which is the
conception of Nature commonly entertained, but who in their
idea of Nature include all existence, all being, all that is or can
be ; natural law with them means only that all things act
according to their own nature and constitution, whatever those
�1
may be. Of course in this view there can be no miracle, nothing
supernatural: all is Nature—Nature is the all.
Is there, then, no God? Or is God only a part of Nature ?
Are the lines of His being (so to speak) parallel, and con
terminous with it? Is His existence so bound up with Nature
that were it not, He, too, would cease to be? Or, while
imminent in Nature does He infinitely transcend it; Nature
being only the theatre of His operations, the one actuality shaped
by Him out of an infinite range of possibilities, and its laws but
the methods of His eternal wisdom?
*
The whole question of
Atheism or Theism is involved in the enquiry. The former
language is that of Atheism or of Pantheism, and in no other
sense can it be intelligently and consistently employed. Those
who inconsiderately adopt it should at least understand what it
implies and whither it is drifting them. Far from placing
Spiritualism on better terms with science and philosophy it is
alien to both, no less than to religion, and to the genius of
Spiritualism itself.
On the other hand the acknowledgment of God is the
admission of the supernatural, the cause and source of Nature,
• This is finely rendered by Mr. Palgrave in his poem, “The Reign, of
Law,” quoted by Dr. Hooker in his Presidential Address to the British
Association for the Advancement of Science. I give the concluding stanzas :—
To matter or to force
The All is not confined ;
Beside the law of things
Is set the law of mind ;
One speaks in rock and star,
And one within tho brain,
In unison at times,
And then apart again ;
And both in one have brought us hither.
That wo may know our whence and whither.
The sequences of law
We learn through mind alone;
We see but outward forms,
The soul the one thing known :—
If she speak truth at all,
The voices must be true
That give these visible things,
These laws, their honour due,
But tell of One who brought us hither,
And holds the keys of whence and whither.
O shrine of God that now
Must learn itself with awe!
O heart and soul that move
Beneath a living law !
That which seem’d all the rule
Of Nature, is but part;
A larger, deeper law
Claims also soul and heart.
'I'lie force that framed and bore us hither
Itself at once is whence and whither.
�8
its root and stay. Were Nature eternal and self-sufficient,—a
self-existing, self-adjusting machine, evolving its laws and forces
from itself as a spider spins its web out of its own bowels, and
with nothing superior to itself, a miracle were impossible; but if
it be derived and dependent, a divine picture-writing, a manifes
tation of the Great Creative Spirit, a vesture woven in the loom
of Time by which we visibly apprehend Him who is invisible,
and if miracle is an outbirth from the supernatural, an action
originating from a sphere beyond and above the range of natural
law,—then Nature is a perpetual miracle, and in this respect
the type of all miracle.
So much will perhaps be generally conceded, but there are
some who find the miracle not in the cause, but in the effect; to
them miracle is simply a synonyme for marvel; thus Carlyle, in
a burst of admiration, speaks of the human hand as “miraculous,”
and Mr. Atkinson insists that “ all Nature is miraculous,” which
it truly is in this sense also as in the other. Indeed (still speaking
in this sense), we may add that the common miracles of Nature
are more miraculous than any other. Moses saw a bush that
burned with fire and was not consumed, but in this glorious
summer time every bush burns with a divine fire and is not
consumed. ' Jesus fed a multitude with five loaves and a few
We may not hope to read
Or comprehend the whole
Or of the law of things
Or of the law of soul:
E’en in the eternal stars
Dim perturbations rise,
And all the searchers’ search
Does not exhaust the skies :
lie who has framed and brought us hither
Holds in His hands the whence and whither.
He in His science plans
What no known laws foretell;
The wandering fires and fix’d
Alike are miracle:
The common death of all,
The life renew’d above,
Are both within the scheme
Of that all-circling love;
The seeming chance that cast us hither
Accomplishes His whence and whither.
Then, though the sun go up
His beaten azure way,
God may fulfil His thought
And bless His world to-day ;
Beside the law of things
The law of mind enthrone,
And, for the hope of all,
Reveal Himself in One ;
Himself the way that leads us thither,
The All-in-all, the Whence and Whither.
�9
small fishes; but what is this to Nature’s daily miracle of
feeding all the countless multitude of men and the cattle on a
thousand hills ? The germination of seed, the growth of plants,
the building up of the human body from the almost invisible
nucleated cell, life and death, birth into the natural world, birth
into the spiritual world, we may call these the most miraculous
of miracles. Think of it; with every beat of the clock a child
is born, a man dies I What is the raising of a dead man in his
natural body to the resurrection of the spiritual man out of the
natural body, which occurs at the death of every man? Were
it not that custom dulls the fresh eye of wonder, every green
blade, every leafing tree would be a miracle. Goethe forcibly
expresses this when he represents Mepliistophiles tapping wine
from a table, with the exclamation to Faust:—Wine is sap, and sap is wood,
The table yieldetli wine as good;
Have faith, and here’s a miracle.
In the absence of experience both would seem equally miracu
lous. To the untutored savage a balloon, a comet, a steam ship,
an eclipse, are miracles. Are we, then, to conclude with some
that the miracle is simply the extraordinary and unexpected, and
of which the cause is to us unknown ? If so, the miracle lies
not in the outward fact, but in ourselves. It is relative only, a
synonyme for ignorant wonder. That which is a miracle to-day
may be no miracle to-morrow; as soon as we understand it it
ceases to be a miracle; so that beginning with finding miracle
everywhere, we may end by finding it nowhere. Or, without
pushing our conclusion so far, shall we take the middle course,
and say that a miracle is only the marvellous and exceptional—
that which so far transcends common-place as to excite astonish
ment, as when we say that the Apollo Belvidere is a miracle of
art, or Shakespeare a miracle of genius ? The bolder conclusion
seems the more logical and consistent, but neither is satisfactory ;
both alike empty the miracle of all significance; but we may
take the hint which they suggest, and see if we cannot find in
human nature a key which may unlock the mystery.
Man stands as the middle term between God and Nature;
by his body he is allied to Nature, by his spirit he claims kin
ship with God, for God is Spirit. In him the two worlds of
matter and of spirit meet and blend. Hemmed in by the limita
tions of his physical nature, subject to the laws of matter and the
conditions of time and space, he yet infinitely transcends them.
In vain does Nature oppose her barriers of mountain and of
wave; in vain hide her secrets in farthest star or deepest
mine; he sails the wave, pierces the mountain, aud links
together islands and continents.
Mightier magician than
�10
Prospero, he bids his faithful Ariel fly, and she outdoes the boast
to put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes. The old earth
unrolls for him the record of her history; the sunbeam yields its
secret; Orion and the Pleiades are known to him. Higher than
wing of bird ever soared, deeper than plummet ever sounded,
reaches and pierces the aspiring, penetrating mind of man.
He is the divine vice-gercnt on earth: Nature’s lord and king.
Even the grave holds not from him her secrets; he studies the
laws of intercourse with the spirit-world and holds converse
with the mighty dead. Is he not then essentially above Nature—
supernatural ? In this inquiry he and the laws of his being
must be taken into the account. In conquering Nature by his
so potent art does he violate her laws, or does lie harmoniously
co-operate with them ? In fine, is not man a free intelligence in
Nature, comprehending more and ever more of the elements and
forces around him, unharnessing them, yoking them together,
varying their combinations, arranging, directing, controlling
them ; knowing what they can do for him, and making them
do it? We do not, however, call this miracle, for he is still
operating from within the realm of Nature.
But, now,
Nature asserts her claim over all of him that belongs to
her, but even in this her final victory man gives the crowning
proof that he is not her thrall. Liberated from the bondage
of Nature and mortality he is now the free citizen of a
higher world, a member of that glorious company of im
mortals whom no man can number. Of the laws of that
spirit-country whither he has migrated; of the new powers he
is able to wield; of the new possibilities that lie before him,
we can know but little ; it may not be in our power to realise
them, till we, too, enter on our glorious inheritance. But this
we know, that he is free from the infirmities and limitations of
the body; from the illusions of sense; from subjection to those
laws of space and time which had chained him down to earth.
Even while a denizen of Nature, his achievements were all of
the spirit, the body simply being his instrument and organ of
communication with his fellows and with the outer world : the
true man, acting from behind the mask of clay, being invisible;
the spirit being known to us, as spirit can be alone known, by
its manifestations. How puerile, then, the objection that spirit
cannot act upon matter, when in every act and movement
of the body the contrary is demonstrated. The subtle links
between spirit and matter are indeed but imperfectly appre
hended, but from daily experience we know that they exist, and
many of us have like evidence that such links may be established
when the spirit is no longer a tenant of the mortal form.
Everywhere Science finds traces of the reign of law : in the
�11
winds and tides, in the spinning, weaving and building of insects, in
the flight of birds, in the path of comets, and of cosmic orbs. She
Looks through natural forms,
And feds the throbbing arteries of Law
In every pulse of Nature and of Man.
That the laws of Nature are universal and uniform in their
operation, that like causes produce like effects, are propositions
that need not the elaborate apparatus of argument and illustra
tion sometimes employed to set them forth. No one for example
disputes that oxygen and hydrogen always form water when
combined in certain proportions, and in none other. What
merchant would engage in foreign trade unless assured that his
ships would swim ? What husbandman would sow were he not
certain that every seed brought forth fruit after its kind ? If the
food of to-day might to-morrow be poison, what an agonising
uncertainty would be our daily lifeI If we are faithful to
Nature, Nature is faithful to us. But docs this beneficent
constancy of Nature preclude the agency of those who have
passed beyond Nature—an agency analogous to our own? How
is the Order of Nature hereby infringed? What law of hers
does this violate? Let us bear in mind that the laws of
Nature are not all on one common level, but move on
different planes of action, at different elevation, and by
gradual ascent—the principle or law which governs these
laws being that the lower is ever subordinate to the higher.
Thus the law of mechanical cohesion is overcome by the higher
law of chemical affinity ; and chemical affinity which resolves
the human body into its constituent elements is held in check by
the law of life, which maintains the physical structure in its
integrity; and as we have seen in man, the animal is subordinate
to the spiritual. It is this which constitutes him the roof and
crown of things, in apprehension so like a God. Our treasure,
however is contained in earthen vessels ; we here, as in a glass,
darkly see only the shows of things, but in its own proper realm,
emancipated from the body and from the bondage of sense, the
spirit discerns things as they truly are: it is in the world of
essences and causes. With larger knowledge, clearer vision,
freer movement, Nature lies below it; it deals with the laws and
forces of a higher world, and to which all laws of physics arc
subordinate; so that, working on the secret affinities and hidden
springs of Nature, with subtler chemistry, more potent magnetism,
with elements and forces at command, beyond our grasp, Nature
becomes plastic to the regulating and formative power of spirit;
it dominates matter, produces in it changes and transmutations
so confounding to previous ideas as to constitute what has
been called “ The Despair of Science.” Operating on lines
�12
of causation inaccessible to us, and forming new conjunctions
of causes, what we find impossible may be easy to the spirit,
and effects familiar to the scientists of the inner world, when
manifested in the material sphere, be as strange, startling, in
explicable to us, as are the highest exploits of science to the
untutored savage.
If I am told that this is contrary to the Order of Nature, or
at all events a deviation from the ordinary course of Nature, I
shall not contest the point, which may prove only a question of
the nature and fitness of terms. A universal and consentaneous
testimony might be cited to show that at all events it is not
contrary to all human experience, not even in this enlightened
nineteenth century, and that therefore it must be accepted as a
part of that larger Order of the Divine Economy of which
Nature is but a subordinate member, and in which Nature and
the Supernatural arc included.*
If on the other hand, as some contend, miracles lie within
the Order of Nature, then we must so extend our conception of
Nature as to comprehend in it at least all ranks and orders of
created beings, including the great realm of spirit with all its laws
* The folly of dogmatising on the laws and possibilities of Nature, of
which we know so little, and assuming that these laws are a finality, is
humorously illustrated by Mr. Kingsley in his Hater Babies, which I cite for
the benefit of those “Land babies” for whom this charming fairy tale was
written :—“ And Tom?
“ In fact the fairies had turned him into a water baby.
“A water baby? You never heard of a water baby. Perhaps not.
That is the very reason why this story was written. There are a great many
things in the world which you never heard of; and a great many more
nobody ever heard of.
“ ‘ But there are no such things as water babies.’ How do you know that?
Have you been there to see ? And if you had been there to see, and had seen
none, that would not prove that there were none.
“ ‘ But a water baby is contrary to Nature.’ Well, but, my dear little man,
you must learn to talk about such things, when you grow older, in a very
different way. You must not talk about ‘ain’t’ and" ‘can’t’ when you speak of
this great wonderful world around you, of which the wisest man knows only
the very smallest corner, and is, as the great Sir Isaac Newton said, only a child
picking up pebbles on the shore of a boundless ocean. You must not say that
this cannot be, or that is contrary to Nature. You do not know what Nature is,
or what she can do ; and nobody knows ; not even Sir Roderick Murchison, or
Professor Owen, or Professor Sedgwick, or Professor Huxley, or Mr. Darwin, or
Professor Faraday, or any other of the great men whom little boys are taught to
respect. They are very wise men ; and you must listen respectfully to all they
say, but even if they should say, which I am sure they never would, ‘ that
cannot exist; that is contrary to Nature.’ You must wait a little and see; for
perhaps even they may be wrong.
“ Wise men are afraid to say that there is anything contrary to Nature,
except what is contrary to mathematical truth, but the wiser men are the less
they talk about ‘cannot.’ That is a very rash dangerous word that ‘cannot,’
and if people use it too often, the Queen of all the Fairies is apt to astonish
them suddenly by showing them, that though they say she cannot, yet she can,
and what is more will, whether they approve or not.”
�13
and forces and modes of existence and operation; a startling inno
vation, and leading to ambiguity and confusion. But if we con
ceive of the spiritual world as discrete from Nature, constituting
another and a higher Order, then we are justified in applying
the terra supernatural to that other-world Order, and to miracles
as acts proceeding from it; this being not only the more con
formable to common usage in thought and speech but also the
more correct and philosophical. Bushnell, confirming his defi
nition by reference to the etymology of the terms in question,
says “ Nature is that created realm of being or substance which
has an acting, a going on, or process from within itself, under
and by its own laws, . . . or, a scheme of orderly succession,
determined from within the scheme itself. . . . That is super
natural, whatever it be, that is eithei’ not in the chain of natural
cause and effect, or which acts on the chain of cause and effect in
Nature from without the chain. Thus if any event transpires
in the bosom, or upon the platform of what is called Nature,
which is not from Nature itself, or is varied from the process
Nature would execute by her own laws, that is supernatural, by
whatever power it is wrought.”
Our investigation then has conducted us to this point, that
a miracle is the intervention by supernatural agency in the
ordinary sequences of Nature producing effects which would
not otherwise have taken place. It is not, therefore, an effect
without adequate cause, but only of a cause operating from
beyond and above Nature, possibly by laws and through links
of connection with which we are either imperfectly acquainted
or wholly ignorant. As remarked by an eminent mathematician :
“ A miracle is not necessarily a violation of any law of Nature,
and it involves no physical absurdity. As Brown well observes,
4 the laws of Nature are surely not violated when a new antece
dent is followed by a new consequent; they arc violated only
when the antecedent, being exactly the same, a different
consequent is the resultso that a miracle has nothing in its
nature inconsistent with our belief of the uniformity of Nature.
All that we see in a miracle is an effect which is new to our
observation, and whose cause is concealed. The cause may be
beyond the sphere of our observation, and would be thus beyond
the familiar sphere of Nature: but this does not make the
event a violation of any law of Nature. The limits of man’s
observation lie within very narrow boundaries, and it would be
arrogance to suppose that the reach of man’s power is to form
the limits of the natural world. The universe offers daily proof
of the existence of power of which we know nothing, but whose
mighty agency nevertheless manifestly appears in the most
familiar works of creation. And shall we deny the existence of
�14
this mighty energy, simply because it manifests itself in dele
gated and feeble subordination to God’s omnipotence? . . .
If we define a miracle as an effect of which the cause is
unknown to us, then we make our ignorance the source of
miracles, and the universe would be a standing miracle.” *
From this view some important consequences would seem to
follow. It brings the whole question of miracles, past and present,
under one general and comprehensive view, and supplies their
law on general principle. It enables us to understand how they
may be associated with different and even conflicting religious
faiths. Able and learned men have thought it necessary to show
(often in spite of evidence to the contrary) that Roman Catholic
and Pagan Miracles must be spurious, because it has been thought
that miracles were evidence of the Divine authority of the worker
or visible agent, and of the truth of all his doctrines and teachings,
or at least of the general truth of the system in attestation of
which the miracle was considered to be wrought. But we may
now see that miracles furnish no such evidence. Were Pio Nono
suddenly endowed with the power of speaking in unknown
tongues—say in the Chinese language—what evidence could that
be of Papal infallibility, or of the dogma of transubstantiation ?
Were a Hindoo philosopher to walk upon the sacred Ganges as
upon dry land, what proof could that be of the metempsychosis ?
What miracle could prove two and two to be more than four, or
less than four ? Or how could it effect any belief we may enter
tain as to the duration of the world, or the origin of species, or
any theory either of physics or of metaphysics to which it does
not stand in immediate relation ? What proof or confirmation
of ethical or religious truth could we derive from witnessing a
miracle except in so far as it proved the reality of spirit existence,
or was in some way related to that belief? Could any heathen
miracle make it right to offer human sacrifices to appease the
anger of the gods ? Or could any miracle make the parable of
the good Samaritan more true, or endow it with more persuasive
efficacy ? The Bible itself exemplifies this : it shows that
miracles in themselves are no evidence of divinity or of truth,
but only of power: that they may be magical, demoniacal, and
even diabolical, as well as divine. The first miracle it records—
that of the talking serpent—was satanic, andoneof the latest visions
the New Testament records, is that of unclean spirits working
miracles. If Moses and Aaron wrought miracles before Pharoah,
“ as the Lord had commanded,” “ Pharoah also called the wise
men and the sorcerers and the magicians of Egypt; and they
also did in like manner with their enchantments.” Nor does it
* Passages from the Life of a Philosopher.
By Chakles Babbage.
�15
affect the point that in this trial of strength the wise men, the
magicians, and the sorcerers were ultimately vanquished. If
“ the spirit of the Lord caught away Philip,” it was “ the
Devil” who took up Jesirs “into an exceeding high mountain,
and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of
them.”* The Evangelist who records this, represents Jesus as
saying, “ There shall arise false Christs and false Prophets, and
shall show great signs and wonders, inasmuch that were it
possible, they shall deceive the very elect,” and Saint Paul
speaks of “ Him whose coming as after the working of Satan,
with all power and signs and lying wonders.” If, then, miracles
are no certain credentials of a divine authority, no infallible
test of truth, what purpose do they serve ?
The New Testament speaks of miracles as “powers” or
“ mighty works,” “ wonders,” and “ signs.” The latter is the
more common and characteristic term. Miracles are the sign of
a presence and a power that is not of earth, of a world beyond
Nature, of a life beyond the present; they evidence that we are
indeed—
Moving about in worlds not realised.
Phenomena, otherwise the most trivial, acquire deep significance
when we realise them as spirit-manifestations, tokens and
greetings from those who have o’erlcaped this bank and shoal of
Time, and thus—
Shame the doctrine of the Sadducee.
They are voices of the night, messenger-birds that come to us
across the deep sea of Time, from the further shore, and tell us
of that miracle country—that spirit-world whither we are
bound. Miracles may have also other significations which we
need not here consider, but this I take to be their main, primary,
universal signification • and especially is this their chief value
and significance in our day of doubt and denial as to all
spiritual things.
Miracles are not the special product of any clime, race, creed,
or period ; they are not governed by considerations of geography,
or of ethnology. We cannot put up a fence anywhere and say,
“ This sacred enclosure is a magic circle in which miracles were
once common, but they have never occurred since, and never
have occurred, and never can occur outside it.” The spirit
world underlies Nature, and overlaps it; and wherever at any
time there are suitable conditions may sensibly manifest its
presence. We are now living in the midst of those experiences
in which the infant religions of the world were cradled. Trances,
* Whether these narratives are or are not historical does not affect the
present question. In any case they illustrate the Bible view of miracles—the
only point for which they are here cited.
�16
visions, healings, converse with spirits, communications from
the invisible world, and manifestations of supernatural power:—
these are familiar and avowed experiences in our time, as in
past ages. Their correspondence with those of the primitive
Christians is admitted even by those who believe in neither.
Renan in his Life of Jesus, says:—u For nearly a century
the Apostles and their disciples dreamed only of miracles.”
“ The disciples deemed it quite natural that their master should
have interviews with Moses and Elias.” “ The compilers of the
Gosepls were living in this respect in a world analogous to that
of the ‘ Spiritualists’ of our time.” Of, course, M. Renan does
not believe in any such world. In a later work, The Apostles, he
tells us, “ It is an absolute rule in criticism to deny a place in
history to narratives of miraculous circumstances. Such facts
have never been really proved. All the pretended miracles
near enough to be examined arc referable to illusion or imposture.
If a single miracle had ever been proved, we could not reject in
a mass all those of ancient history, for admitting that many of
these last were false, we might still believe that some of them
were true.” That is just the contention of “ the Spiritualists of
our time,” who from their own experience know that all miracles
arc not “ referable to illusion or imposture
and who find that
their experiences in the nineteenth century illustrate those of
“ the Apostles and their disciples” in the first century, that the
present and the past shed light upon each other.
11A miracle in Paris before experienced savans would put an
end to all doubt,” says Renan. I more than doubt it. To
say nothing of the Apostolic miracles, even the lesser' marvels
of Spiritualism in our own day, attested by such savans
as Alfred Russell Wallace, Professor De Morgan, and half-adozen Fellows of the Royal Society, backed by a crowd of
witnesses from the learned professions and from all ranks of
society, and from everv civilized land, does nothing of the kind.
Were an indubitable miracle to take place before a company of
the most experienced savans of Paris, as M. Renan suggests,
what would happen ? Simply this: that the Members of the
Institute, the Fellows of the Royal Society, and other learned
bodies, would tell them plainly it was all imposture or delusion.
If it were a miracle of vision it would be an hallucination; if
one of hearing, they would be told it was probably a disease of
the auditual nerve, or the miracle would be explained 'as a
nervous epidemic, or automatic cerebration, or past ideas
renovated, or possibly as due to hypnotism, oi' electro-biology.
They would be reminded that anyhow it could not be a
miracle, because a miracle is impossible, and not to be estab
lished by any amount of testimony. Finally, it would be insisted
�17
that if the miracle was to be believed, it must be done over
again, and as often as might be required, and under such test
conditions as the more experienced savans should impose. When
M. Renan tells us “ miracles never happen,” he may be right
if he means only that they never happen before some collective
body of “ experienced savans” for they never place themselves
in the way of their happening; and if brought before them by
one of their number they refuse to even listen to such matters,
as did the American Association for the Promotion of Science
when invited by Professor Hare and the Spiritualists of
AA ashington, and as the Royal Society has done more recently in
refusing even to hear a paper on “ Pyschic Force” read before it
by Mr. Crookes ; but if M. Renan means that no experienced
sayans in our day testify to such facts as were formerly called
miracles, then he manifests an ignorance of the subject that
would be strange in so learned a man, were it not, alas! so
common.
Dr. Littledale, writing in the Contenrporary Review for August,
1872, on “ The Rationale of Prayer,” in reply to Professor
Tyndall, says on this point:—
u I employed myself some time ago in speculating as to what
would be the practical result on modern unbelief of a public revival
of miracles. I have put before me the hypothesis of my being
myself invested with a supernatural power of healing, and have
asked myself what would come of it, assuming that the number and
notoriety of the cures forced the physicists to take the matter up
and inquire into it, instead of dismissing it with contemptuous
incredulity. And I became satisfied that unless the power were
universal and persistent in me, that is, that no case failed under
any conditions, its evidential value would be superciliously
disregarded. The objectors would insist on God’s working so
as to please them. They would require a variety of specified
conditions to be fulfilled in every instance, bargaining for the
nature and duration of the disease, the character and number of
the witnesses to be present, the uniform repetition of the cure
under carefully diversified circumstances, and the like. Then,
if God did not choose to submit Himself to such critics, or with
drew after a time the power conferred, they would look to the
cessation of the miracle, not to its previous persistence, and
reject it accordingly as a mere abnormal phenomenon not de
serving of serious attention. While, on the other hand, even if
it did continue, they would, I am convinced, ascribe it to the
discovery on my part of some hidden pathological law, and
would deny the existence of any superhuman causation. The
Evangelists are careful to let us know that the miracles they
ascribe to Christ were so far from converting His chief opponents
B
�18
that they merely embittered their hostility. And I consequently
do not believe for a moment that even if the proposed experi
ment (a ward in an hospital to be specially prayed for) were one
which is lawful for a Christian to try, if it were carried out to
the letter as suggested, and if the tabulated result exhibit an enor
mous percentage of cures in the favoured ward, that the hyperdogmatic asserters of the impossibility of miracles would be
convinced. They would whisper about that one of the physicians
had got a secret specific somehow, and was in league with the
parsons to palm off his success as theirs. And they would
probably point their remarks by showing how very conceivably
that trick might have been played when chloroform was dis
covered but not yet currently known.”
In terms almost identical with those of Renan, Strauss
assures us, 11 There is no right conception of what history
is, apart from a conviction that the chain of endless causation
can never be broken, and that a miracle is an impossibility. ”
But, now, are we quite sure that miracle is a breach in the
continuity of causation? Do we know the whole chain from
end to end? or, Do we see only a few of its lower links, the
higher, invisible to mortal ken, reaching, it may be, beyond
the realm of Nature, and producing effects we term miraculous?
Biishner sneeringly asks, “ Do not the table-spirits belong to the
order of miracles?” and in a very different spirit, Cudworth
argues, “ Though all miracles, promiscuously, do not immediately
prove the existence of God, nor confirm a prophet, or whatso
ever doctrine; yet, do all of them evince that there is a rank
of invisible, understanding beings, superior to men, which
atheists commonly deny.” The sneer of the atheist, and the
argument of the philosopher might alike suggest to the brilliant
Frenchman and the learned German that their objection to
miracle is based on an entire and fundamental misapprehension
of its nature, that it is not a synonym for a break in the chain
of endless causation; and with the rectification of that fatal
error their objection to miracle disappears: it has no longer a
foothold on the earth.
The supernatural is as much in harmony with law as is the
natural. The intervention of spiritual agency in Nature, acting
upon forces and in ways unknown to us and thereby producing
effects contrary to common experience, as when what we call
solid matter is made to pass through solid matter, is no more a
violation of law, or a break in the chain of endless causation,
than when man intervenes in Nature and employs the electric
current to transmit a message to the Antipodes.
That mistrust and doubt, especially when these are of the
will, rather than of the understanding, are real powers of
�19
hindrance in all spiritual working; and that such powers are
intensified by union and brought to a focus, is certain. Even
the Master Miracle-worker, in the midst of a sceptical com
munity, “could do no mighty works because of their unbelief.”
So far were His miracles from being acts of omnipotence, that He
expressly insists on their limitations, and on the conditions—
spiritual and physical—necessary to their performance,—faith,
prayer, fasting, unity, harmony. No doubt it was to the
observance of these divine laws, to His habits of solitude,
meditation, and prayer; His perfect trust in God, and His
oneness with the Father, that He was able to perform those
beneficent mighty works that were indeed a sign to that
faithless and perverse generation. Doubtless there was also
conjointly in Him what may be called an organic fitness—a
harmony of the entire nature, an openness to the highest influx,
the natural body itself being pre-eminently a temple for the
Divine Spirit; so that both spiritually and physically, and in an
especial manner, He was thus constituted the living organ and
medium of its communication and power. And if now, as we are
told, “ such things never happen,” let it, among other things, be
remembered that such a personality is never found, that such a
life is never lived. When our “ experienced savansn are thus
open to influx from the Heavens, and attain that moral and
spiritual union with God which Christ exemplified, and to which
His true disciples aspire, they may realise the truth of His words,
“ The works that I do shall ye do also, and greater than these ;”
and of His promise to be in the midst of those who were gathered
together in His name; and understand how the great Pentecostal
outpouring occurred, when “ the disciples were all with one
accord in one place.”
To our “ experienced savans” however, I am aware such
language is like talking in an unknown tongue.
Spiritual
insight indeed is rarely found in men profoundly penetrated
with a sense of their own learning and wise in their own
conceit. It is true now, as of old, that spiritual mysteries are
often hidden from these wise and prudent persons and revealed
to fishermen, and even unto babes. Scholarship may teach us
of the past, and science of the facts of Nature and her methods,
but spiritual arcana are beyond their province. Philology and
mathematics will not help us to any knowledge of the laws,
forces, and relations of the spiritual world, and the most
experienced savant may be stone-blind to the simplest facts
concerning it; as indeed he is when he seeks to test and gauge
those facts by the laws and methods of purely natural science,
except in so far . as they relate to phenomena and effects of
spiritual action within the range of physics.
�20
While we contend that there is no antecedent impossibility
in miracles; that, like other facts, they may be established on
sufficient evidence ; that they violate no law of the Divine Order,
when we take a comprehensive view of that Order as including
both the natural and the spiritual universe with which they may
be coeval and co-extensive; they at the same time become
divested of that false and superstitious character which in a
scientific age has so impeded their reception.
I trust that the time is not far distant when this whole
subject will be reconsidered on larger grounds than those on
which it is now generally discussed, and apart from any bearings
it may be supposed to have on theories and systems on either
side. It may be that our definitions may have to be corrected
and our theories revised, and that our systems may be found
partial and incomplete; but let us take all facts into the
account and resolve to follow Truth whithersoever it may lead
us, and I apprehend we shall be on the high road to a better
understanding of the rationale of miracles, past and present.
Note.—I have abstained from direct discussion of the New Testament
miracles (to which, in consideration of this subject, our thoughts naturally
revert) as their adequate discussion would demand much fuller treatment than
is here possible. I would, however, recommend the reader desirous of prosecu
ting this enquiry to Trench’s Notes on the Miracles, especially to the Introduction,
which gives a historical and critical review of the objections to them. It is a
pity this Introduction is not published as a separate essay in a cheap form for
more extensive circulation.
In reply to Hume and more recent objectors to miracles, see an able paper
by Alfred Russell Wallace, read before the Committee of the London Dialectical
Society, and published in The Spiritual Magazine, No. 3, Vol. VII., New Series.
Printed by Thomas Scott, Warnick Court, Holborn.
�
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Concerning miracles
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Brevior, Thomas
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Collation: 20 p. ; 21 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Reprinted from the Spiritual Magazine, October, 1872. Includes bibliographical references. Printed by Thomas Scott, Holborn. Author is pseudonym of Thomas Hooper.
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Miracles
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Conway Tracts
Miracles
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^A/b/2-
DR CARPENTER AT SION COLLEGE;
OR, THE
VIEW OF MIRACLES
TAKEN BY
MEN OF SCIENCE.
PUBLISHED BY THOMAS SOOTT,
NO. II THE TERRACE, FARQUHAR ROAD, UPPER NORWOOD,
LONDON, S.E. ■
1874.
Price. Sixpence.
�7
�DE CAEPENTEE AT SION COLLEGE ;
OR,
THE VIEW OF MIRACLES
TAKEN BY
MEN OF SCIENCE.
HE following correspondence originated from the
sending to Divinity
the
Tnotice which aappeared ProfessorIndex, copy of atime
in The
a short
since, of a lecture delivered by Dr Carpenter at Sion
College, on “The Reign of Law,” particularly in
relation to the efficacy of prayer, before an audience
two-thirds of which consisted of clergymen. As
exception has been taken to the notice referred to by
some who were present at the meeting, on the ground
that it was not strictly accurate, it may be well to
give the reader an authoritative summary of the
Doctor’s line of thought, by way of introduction to
the general discussion of the subject which succeeds.
No report of the lecture appeared in the English press
at the time, and no formal minutes were kept of the
proceedings by the officials of Sion College. It may
just be premised, further, that while the lecture went
to show that there was no proof of the uniformity of
law observable in the physical universe being in the
least altered by prayer, Dr Carpenter left his hearers
to infer, by natural sequence, that no evidence exists
of the course of physical nature ever having been
interrupted preternaturally from any cause whatso
ever. This latter principle underlies the whole argu
�4
On the View of Miracles
ment of the lecture, and interlaces Dr Carpenter’s
thought throughout. It may be otherwise defined
thus. The structure of the Universe seems, from all
that can be known of it, to be incompatible with the
occurrence of physical miracle ; and the investigation
of this principle will be chiefly kept in view by the
present writer.
Dr Carpenter began by expressing his entire
agreement with Dr Chalmers and other theologians
who have known what science means in regarding
“ the laws of nature ” as simply our expressions of
the uniformities observable in the phenomena of the
universe. The lecturer referred specially to Dr
Chalmers’s sermon, entitled “The Constancy of Nature:
a Testimony to the Faithfulness of God.” He showed
that the whole of our action in the world proceeds
upon the assumption of this uniformity; and whilst
he did not question that the Deity could depart from
it if he so determined, he did emphatically question
whether we had any ground to expect that he ever
would, in accordance with human entreaty.
“If the whole scheme of creation,” argued Dr
Carpenter, “ has been devised with a view to the
highest happiness and welfare of God’s creatures, any
departure from that scheme must be for the worse.
And so, if I ask God for something that I think would
be better for me, it must be at the expense (even
supposing that I should really be the better for it) of
some one else. But any one who really believes in the
infinite paternity of God would shrink from impor
tunity for any change that he may desire for himself;
just as much as a child who trusts implicitly in the
wisdom and affection of an earthly father will abstain
from importuning him, when told that what he asks
would be bad for him.”
“To importune God for any departure from his
uniform course of action seems to me tantamount to
saying either that we know better than he does what
�Taken by Men of Science.
$
is good for us, or that, knowing that his way is best
in the end, we prefer the immediate gratification of
our own selfish desires.”
“ In earlier times pestilences were supposed to be
punishments inflicted by the vengeance of an offended
Deity, who was to be propitiated by prayers and
sacrifices. Now, we regard them as the result of
habitual violations of the laws which God enables us
to read in the course of nature ; and when such occur,
we set ourselves to find out the misdoing and endea
vour to correct it.”
The Doctor then narrated a very remarkable case,
which occurred at Baltimore in the Cholera Epidemic
of 1849. “Though the Poor-House,” he said, “was
supposed to have been free from any special liability
to its attack, and there was no prevalence of cholera
in the town, yet at two or three miles distance from
Baltimore, and in an open salubrious situation, there
was a most fearful outbreak in this Poor-House,
thirty dying in a day out of about eight hundred.
This was traced to a defect of drainage, which was
at once rectified, and immediately the plague was
stayed.” With reference to this Dr Carpenter
asked:—“ Does any gentleman in this room believe
that, if all Baltimore had gone down on its knees for
a week, God would have been moved to avert the
visitation ? ” His argument was that, “ in regard to
the course of nature, it is for the man of science to
study the uniformities of the Divine action, and to
bring down his own into accordance with it.” He
drew, however, “a broad line between the action of
Deity in the physical universe and his spiritual agency
on the mind of man.” “ The religious experience of
ages,” he said, “sanctions the idea that prayer for
enlightenment to know the will of God, and for
strength to enable us to do or bear it, has an effect—■
how or
we cannot tell; and to this view he gave
his entire assent. “ Such prayer,” he maintained,
�6
On the View of Miracles
“ is in accordance with the deepest religious instincts,
and is expressed in the noblest passages of sacred
literature.” “ But, in regard to the work of life,” he
contended “ that laborare (on the highest principles of
action) est orare. ”
One clergyman said, at the close of the lecture,
that if Dr Carpenter’s position were correct he might
as well shut up his church. He said : “ I ask God
for things I want, and I expect to get them.” But
this did not seem the general impression, which was,
that “ prayer does not change the course of nature,
but that, in the ordination of Divine Providence,
Prayer is a condition of our obtaining what we ask.”
In a letter written afterwards by Dr Carpenter to
a friend, containing comments on this latter view of
prayer, he says: “ This is as much as to say that if
we did not ask we should not receive (yet we are told
that material blessings are bestowed alike on the just
and the unjust, on the thankful and the unthankful).
I should call this the mechanical theory of Prayer.
It puts us in the condition of children just learning to
talk, who are made to say ‘ Ta! ’ for a cake or a
sweetie; and it seems to me to lower the spiritual
value of prayer to the material, instead of raising the
material to the spiritual—or, as Miss Cobbe said to
me, to bring God down to us, instead of trying to lift
ourselves to God.”
“ Mr Llewellyn Davies expressed his general ac
cordance with me; and I had subsequent communi
cations from other clergymen to the same effect. I
believe that liberal and thoughtful men generally
would accept these conclusions, if not trammelled by
the letter of Scripture. Many have revolted at the
parables of the Unjust Judge and the Importunate
Widow, and of the Friend who yields to importunity
what he will not give to friendship; as conveying a
low idea of the Divine Fatherhood. Their best inter
pretation has, I think, been given by Robert Collyer
�Taken by Men of Science.
7
(of Chicago), in an admirable sermon entitled “ Knock
ing at the Gate of Heaven,”—their lesson being that
nothing good or great can be got without persevering
effort.”
Letter from the Lev. Dr ----- , Professor of Theology, to
Mr M---- .
----- College, 14 March, 1874.
My dear Mr M----- ,
If the report [from The Index] of which you have kindly
sent me a copy be correct . . . there must have been a most
melancholy exhibition of bigotry, narrowness and fanaticism.
. . . What a god in knowledge Dr Carpenter must be to
be able to use such words as:—“Nature represents a
kingdom of orderly evolution which has never been invaded
by anything preternatural or supernatural, and all liturgies,
litanies, collects, and prayers that were ever uttered never
had influenced—never could influence—the course of this
universe, nor mankind, nor a single individual in the slightest
degree.”*
Do you really think Dr Carpenter knows the entire history of
nature and humanity from the beginning down to this time,
so exactly as to be able of knowledge to affirm that ? If he
do not, such a statement, scientifically considered, is the pro
duct either of ignorance or fanaticism. If this be what is
called “Truth, whatever be the consequences,” the so-called
scientists are as self-deluded as they are fanatical—viewed
from the point of view of sober science. The paper you have
sent has supplied me with another proof that there are no
men more narrow and incapable of reasoning outside their own
limited department than the “scientists.” They are con
stantly protesting against metaphysics, philosophy, faith, &c.,
and yet they are perpetually making a system of the
universe out of the wee bit of earth to which they have
devoted special attention. Speaking solely from a scientific
point of view, I maintain that statements like Dr Carpenter’s
are as unscientific and fanatical as the crudest assertions ever
enunciated by a preacher. There is now far more real
scientific sobriety and caution in believing than in unbelieving
circles. Fanaticism is fast becoming—as has been foretold—
the specialty of those who do not believe. Excuse me
expressing myself plainly. I do so as a thinking man, not as
* These words are cited from the notice in The Index.
�8
On the View of Miracles
a Christian teacher. Wishing that you yourself may soon
again pass from darkness to the true light of life in Christ,
I am, &c.,
---------- .
Letter from Mr M---- to Dr------ .
B----- , 19 March, 1874.
My dear Dr----- ,
. . . The report of the proceedings at Sion College, which
I forwarded you, is substantially correct on the main points,
though faulty in omitting to record that one-third of the
audience was composed of laymen, in erroneously stating that
bishops were present, and in making too much of the protests
uttered by the clergy. Moreover, it puts the argument
of Dr Carpenter too baldly, and without due qualification.
The lecturer did not deny the possibility of Deity effecting a
physical miracle or acting discordantly with the uniform
operation of material law, though he asserted that there was
no ground to expect that the Deity ever would depart from that
uniformity in accordance with human entreaty. Again, in justice
to the Doctor it should have been stated in the report, that
he admitted prayer to be efficacious in the spiritual sphere as
far as to enable us to obtain “enlightenment ” respecting “the
will of God” and “ strength to do or bear it.”
Now one point is clear. Dr Carpenter practically recog
nises interference with the uniform operation of the laws of
nature as a conception at variance with the perfect wisdom
and beneficence he would attribute to the Deity; for he says
in his own account of the lecture written to a correspondent:
“If the whole scheme of creation has been devised with a
view to the highest welfare of God’s creatures, any departure
from that scheme must be for the worse.” In this view I entirely
concur, notwithstanding the epithets with which you gratui
tously bespatter the lecturer and the scientific laymen present
who shared his opinions. As for some of the worthy clergy
men present, their uneasiness under the statements to which
they listened is far from unaccountable. They are not accus
tomed to be contradicted by their people, and perhaps many
of them had not imagined that it was possible for their fond
traditions and devout faith in the miraculous, to receive so
rude a shock from the inexorable conclusions of science. Such
conclusions tended to disturb their faith, which is usually felt
by them to be consoling and strong in proportion as it is not
subjected to the test of historic criticism and to the antisupernatural analyses of science.
�Taken by Men of Science.
9
While virtually at one with Dr Carpenter on this head, I
should be disposed to define my position without his qualifying
considerations. He admits that whatever the Deity may have
the power to will, there is no proof that he has ever performed
a miracle in answer to human entreaty,—and I would venture
to add that there is no real proof that he ever performed a
miracle under any other condition. I believe nature to be a
system of orderly evolution, and in the very essence of the
constitution of the universe, the possibility of what is popu
larly understood as supernatural or miraculous interference
with its laws is necessarily precluded. Nature would cease
to be nature, and the universe to be the universe, on any
other supposition. This is the inductive view of the matter,
which one, unsophisticated by theological bias, instinctively
arrives at, as the result of intelligently observing the struc
ture, phenomena, and laws of the universe. And in this view
we are impregnably supported by the experience of the greatest
thinkers of modern days and by the testimony of all verifiable
history, as distinguished from incoherent, contradictory, and
half-mythical records which belong to unscientific and super
stitious times, and which relate, for the most part, to com
munities notoriously credulous and unacquainted with the
simplest facts of natural science. Niebuhr has played con
siderable havoc with some pleasant stories in the early history
of Rome; and, much to the dismay of those who have been
indulging similarly happy illusions affecting the professed
biographies of Jesus and his apostles, Strauss, Bauer, Schenkel, Meredith, Scott, and others have demonstrated many
historical statements in the four Gospels to be not only irreconcileable with each other, but incapable of proof. The
authenticity of these Gospels touches the very core of the
question of miracles, for they are claimed to be an inspired
history of a supernatural revelation from God; and for this
reason I must ask your permission to submit a few remarks
on these venerated documents in connection with this
subject.
Pagan, Jewish, and Christian writers alike, nearest to the
days of Jesus and his apostles knew nothing of the four
gospels. Moreover, as to the writing spoken of in the alleged
works of a certain Christian Bather, under the title of
‘ Memorials of the Apostles,’ there is no proof that these
‘ Memorials ’ ever existed; no trace of them can be found; and
it is quite possible that the single reference to them in early
Christian literature may be spurious. But even granting that
such ‘ Memorials ’ were genuine and authentic, there is nothing
to show that they were identical with the Gospels in the main,
or that they substantiate the claims of the latter. In no
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On the View of Miracles
instance do the Fathers for the first 150 years mention
Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, or quote words which can,
beyond dispute, be verified as of the authorship of the
“Evangelists.” There is no proof that the Gospels, in their
present shape, or in any real shape, were known to the
Fathers during the period above stated. Not till the time of
Irenceus (A.D. 180) does the doctrine of the Divine origin of the
Gospels begin to be propounded and believed, and even then Christians
were greatly divided as to which Gospels, and how many, were worthy
their acceptance. Nor can it be denied that the second
century was pre-eminent in Christendom for “pious frauds”
in connection with the “ sacred” records of the church,—these frauds being shamelessly practised and justified because
calculated to advance the material and external interests
of the Christian faith. A hundred years from the death of
the oldest apostle was surely a sufficiently long space,—
under such lax ideas of honesty as then prevailed among
Christian writers,—to bring to maturity a considerable
crop of fictitious narratives; and it is well known that tales
of this kind abounded in those times, respecting Jesus and
his immediate followers. A distinguished Church of England
theologian writes:—“Books, countless in number, were
written [in post-apostolic times], professing to give a history
of Jesus and his apostles. The authorship of these was attri
buted to Christ himself, or to some of his apostles and their
companions : our four Gospels were selected from this countless
number.” By.whom were they selected? When were they
selected? Why were they selected? Let Mosheim answer
these questions. “ As to the time when, and the persons by
whom, the books of the New Testament were collected into
one body, there are various opinions, or rather conjectures, of
the learned ; for the subject is attended with great and inexplicable
difficulties to us of these latter times.'’*
What then can really be known of how and by whom these
selected gospels were composed ? Is there no unmistakeable
source of information open to us as to when and how they
came into existence, and when and how the original autographs
of them were lost ? Such autographs are unknown to history.
The very earliest MS. of the gospels the world has, as yet,
had access to, is dated no further back than the beginning of
the fourth century.
Even orthodox theologians of repute saw away the branch
to which they cling, by the admissions which facts compel
them to make concerning the impenetrable obscurity and, I
might add, the strong doubtfulness in which the origin of the
gospels is shrouded. The late Dean Alford, in his ‘ Critical
* Eccles. Hist., vol. i., p. 93.
�Taken by Men of Science.
II
Introduction to the Greek text of the New Testament,
writes: “The Christian world is left in uncertainty
what its Scriptures are as long as the sacred text is full of
Various readings. Some one MS. must be pointed out to us which
carries the weight of verbal inspiration or some text whose authority
shall be undoubted, must be promulgated. But manifestly neither
'of these things can ever happen. To the latest age the reading of
■some important passages will be matter of doubt in the church,
and there is hardly a sentence in the whole of the
FOUR GOSPELS IN WHICH THERE ARE NOT VARIETIES OF
DICTION IN OUR PRINCIPAL MSS., BAFFLING ALL ATTEMPTS
to decide which was its original form.” A frank con
cession truly for a learned exegetical theologian who,
notwithstanding, strangely adhered to the notion that the
gospels were miraculously inspired!
Canon Westcott, who has bestowed, if possible, even more
attention upon the question of New Testament canonieity,
speaks in yet more decisive terms on this point. “It is cer
tainly remarkable,” he says, “that in the controversies of the
second century, which often turned upon disputed readings of
the Scripture, no appeal was made to the apostolic originals; the
few passages in which it has been supposed that they are referred to,
will not bear examination.”* Orthodox critics themselves being
witnesses, therefore, there is no evidence that the gospels
were written by those whose names they bear; there is a total
absence of contemporary testimony in their favour, and no
proof whatever in the next two generations, that the books
were veracious, or written by the persons to whom they are
ascribed. Canon Westcott himself admits that clear quota
tions from the gospels do not occur till the time of Ireneeus
(a.d. 180), Clement of Alexandria (a.d. 220), and Origen
(a.d. 250).
The accepted doctrine of the New Testament, as containing
a supernatural revelation, then, seems simply “to have had
its origin in tradition for at least the first hundred and
seventy years of the Christian era; for the following one
hundred and thirty years it was a matter of speculation, among
men whose ignorance was only equalled by their superstitious
credulity; and, finally, it was decreed to be a divine truth by
a majority of votes in one of those turbulent assemblies of
bishops, which too often had to be dispersed by military force,
after terrible rioting, which was sometimes attended with
bloodshed.”
Until the third Council of Carthage (A.D. 397) numerous
gospels and epistles were in circulation and use among the
Christians, all claiming equally to be of inspired authority.
* Art. Smith’s Diet, of the Bible,vol. ii., p. 506.
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On the View of Miracles
By the bishops assembled at that Council a catalogue of the
books to be chosen and recognised as canonical, was drawn
up and passed, because found to serve best the ends of the
theological party then in power. All other books that
seemed to clash with the dogmas of this ruling party were
promptly burned. After much episcopal wrangling at the
*
Council on the subject, the number of gospels to be included
in the Canon was limited to four, with the consent of the
majority of the bishops, for the following ingenious reason,
which proved to be irresistibly conclusive to their orthodox
minds! Irenaeus was reported to have said, two centuries before :
“ It is impossible that there could have been more or less than
four. For there are four climates, and four cardinal winds,
and the church is spread over the whole earth ; but the gospel
is the pillar and foundation of the church, and its breath of
life. The church, therefore, was to have four pillars, blowing
immortality from every quarter, and giving life to men.”
Hence we happen to have inherited four gospels instead of
forty or fourscore I
Yet on the foundation of this arbitrary, conflicting, and
unproveable collection of narratives, you and your orthodox
friends expect Dr Carpenter to believe in the miracles ascribed
to Jesus and his colleagues, and you charge the Doctor with
“ narrowness, bigotry, and fanaticism ” because he rejects all
past accounts of miracles as improbable. We, who are called
rationalists, disbelieve in miracles (1) because it is of the
nature of supernatural interposition, were such to occur, to
introduce confusion and ruin into the whole indissolubly
connected chain of causes and effects throughout the Uni
verse ; and (2) because there does not exist in support of
religious miracles, or any other sort of miracles, any proof to
satisfy a mind free from traditional or sentimental fetters, and
bent on reaching fact by the only legitimate method—the
inductive method. I should be willing to leave it to any
twelve unprejudiced men of thought and judgment to decide
whether fanaticism lies in believing in miracles on the sandy
foundation of “pious frauds,” obscure superstitions, and con
flicting statements, pertaining to an age and a people remark
able for credulity and ignorance; or whether it lies in
rejecting tales of the miraculous, and trusting to the uniform
“Reign of Law” as essential to the well-being of the Uni
verse at all times and in all regions. If the question be
which side lays itself open to the imputation of fanaticism, I
should imagine the charge would most apply to those who
are satisfied to believe in stories of miracles which are said to
Draper’s Hist, of the Intel. Devpt. of Europe, vol. i., pp. 301-302.
�Taken by Men of Science.
T3
have happened nearly 2,000 years ago, on the authority of very
remote, incoherent, and unverifiable hearsays, coming down
from peasants living in ignorant times. The real fanatics are
surely those who, while so readily taking in those crude
narratives of far-off days, could not be convinced of the
supernatural occurring now, by almost any amount or kind
of testimony. How shall we characterise so singular a mode
of reasoning, except as fanatical ? Proof for an alleged miracle
in the nineteenth century, before it could be received by the
orthodox, must be indisputable; but the most hazy, mythwoven, and incongruous evidence is quite sufficient in their
view to support the affirmation of many miracles having taken
place among illiterate enthusiasts in the first century.
“Dq you really think Dr Carpenter knows the entire history
of nature and humanity from the beginning down to this
time so exactly as to be able of knowledge to affirm that ?
[viz., that a miracle never happened.] ” Such is your
question ; and it contains an intended quietus for the ration
alist which won some Evangelical fame for John Poster sixty
years ago, and the reply has been already given. There is no
proof that the regular course of nature has ever been departed
from, and yet the proof ought to be demonstrable in pro
portion to the extraordinary phenomena to which you invite
our credence. Nay, your question can be matched by another.
Do you really think that the planet Jupiter has the alterna
tion of day and night like our Earth ? Do you really think
that Neptune is influenced by the law of gravitation like this
“ wee bit of earth ” ? Can you say you know such to be the
case ? Have you personally been close enough to these stars,
and had such opportunities of studying their movements, that
you can demonstrate the assertion, of your knowledge, respecting
them ? Have you seen day and night on Jupiter ? Do you
possess tangible evidence that the laws of gravitation extend
to Neptune ? You know you cannot point to the clear evi
dence of your senses in proof of these things; and yet you are
prepared to assert emphatically that the phenomena I have
described belong as much to other planets as to our own.
You have the analogy of material law within the range of
your personal observation to guide you, and the tested con
clusions of science deepen your sense of the universality and
uniformity of law in its operations. But suppose I were to
hurl at you, for your supposed assertions about Jupiter and
Neptune, the ecclesiastical thunderbolt you aim at Dr
Carpenter and other men of science—whose pure, life-long and
successful devotion to the study of nature merits for them the
profoundest respect—for their denial of miracles, what then ?
And yet men of science have simply reached their conclusions as
�14
On the View of Miracles
to the order of nature excluding the occurrence of miracles
by the same inferential kind of reasoning which might lead you
to venture statements about something going on hundreds of
millions of miles away. There is, however, this difference. While
theologians and men of science in the case supposed would
equally base their reasonings on their convictions of an universal Cosmos, Dr Carpenter and his friends have had much
more experience than professors of theology in observing
the processes of nature, a higher scientific culture and a more
extensive and subtle apparatus for conducting scientific
research. _ Consequently I should feel quite as much justified
in accepting the statement of Dr Carpenter in his challenging
the proof of miracles, as I should in accepting your version of
certain natural events happening in very distant parts of the
universe. What think you now of the severe judgment you
have passed on scientific men as applied to yourself, mutatis
mutandis? “If he do not [i.e., know, by a personal inspection,
all departments of the Universe from the beginning, &c.] such
a statement [i.e., as the one the Doctor makes against
the occurrence of miracles], scientifically considered, is the
product either of ignorance or fanaticism. . . . The socalled scientists are as self-deluded as they are fanatical.
. . . No men more narrow and incapable of reasoning out
side their own limited department.”
Of course theologians (I suppose on Paul’s principle of him
that is spiritual being at liberty to judge all things) are
eminently capable of estimating accurately the profound
analysis of science, their “department” being so proverbially
expansive—especially where creeds, like high walls, attract
their, gaze to the vast range of metaphysico-theological
inscriptions written in these creeds—and shut out the region
beyond! A Pisgah-like prospect certainly, compared with
the “limited ” vista of science which has the grave disadvan
tage of beihg encompassed by no stereotyped creeds—
inventions so admirably adapted to enlarge human thought
and inspire a bold and wholesome love of ‘ ‘ truth, regardless
of consequences !! ”
I have seen, in my time, a good deal of philosophico-theological gymnastics performed round that word ‘ ‘ experience,”
as used by Hume tn relation to the subject of miracles. But
I have yet to find the dilemma in which that philosopher
put his supernaturalist critics, effectually answered by them.
■“ It is more probable (said he) that human testimony should
be false than that a miracle should be true; ” or as Paley
repeats Hume’s objection:—“It is contrary to experience
that a miracle should be true, but not contrary to experience
that testimony should be false.” This objection to miracles
�Taken by Men of Science.
i5
advanced by Hume before science had so completely disclosed
to us the uniform orderly development of nature as it has
since done—I say again has never been really confuted by
theology, but, on the other hand, has been confirmed by the
ever-accumulating verities of science.
Both on the principles, then, of true philosophy—the
philosophy of scientific fact — and on the principles of
scholarly historical criticism, the fairly intelligent mind of
our day, apart from traditional prejudices, cannot but have a
predisposition to trust the order of the universe as an uniform
whole, and as all-sufficient for every need of our race, and to
disbelieve in the aberglaube of supernaturalism.
When any class of men take it upon them to assert that
something miraculous took place somewhat frequently, 2,000
years ago in Palestine among a few obscure Jewish peasants,
of whom contemporary history says nothing, and of whom
trustworthy history takes no account for more than a century
afterwards ; when any class of men insist on our faith in this
preternatural interference on the authority of the most
unsatisfactory evidence ever produced—evidence which never
can be verified; when any class of men maintain that our
escape from eternal misery or eternal annihilation, as the case
may be, depends on our reception of vague and unverifiable
allegations about events avowedly contrary to the known laws
of nature and to the sum of trustworthy human experience,
and more particularly in the most enlightened ages and
countries, then unquestionably a very grave onus of proof
rests upon these believers in miracles. For my part I
unhesitatingly own that I regard miracles as impossible,
unnecessary, and superstitious, and while I see startling
presumption in any party proclaiming the necessity of
believing in them on a basis so frail—not to say illusory—as
the authority on which they are made to stand, I find every
thing harmonious with reason and with accredited and sober
human experience in the position of those of an inductive
habit of mind who disbelieve them.
Your mode of treating the subject calls to one’s mind the
legal exigency in which the policy is resorted to of abusing the
plaintiff’s attorney. You denounce the honest truth-seeking
“scientists,” as you call them, who have no creed to main
tain for pay, and who have consequently vastly less tempta
tion than theologians in the Christian sects have, to stick to a
dogma because it is the shibboleth of a party. We have had
enough of denunciation and reproach from orthodoxy. What
we want is honest and earnest discussion from your side; not
elaborate metaphysical dialectics or effusions of pious senti
ment, which are quite irrelevant, but calm, logical statements
�16
On the View of Miracles
offact in reply to the historical and scientific statements of fact
put forth by learned sceptics. Yet if we invite you to answer
Dr Carpenter and Professor Tyndall with science for science,
you choose either to evade the real point at issue or to assume
a scornful attitude and refuse our reasonable demand as if it
were malicious and profane. If we ask you to reply to
Spinoza’s ‘Tractatus Theologico-Politicus,’ or Strauss’s ‘‘T/ife
of Jesus,’ or Colenso’s ‘Pentateuch,’ you simply point us to
Neander’s ‘Life of Christ,’ or ‘Aids to Faith,’ or to the
paltering lectures of the “Christian Evidence Society,” and
you go your way, reminding us that our “stale objections”
have been “answered over and over again.” But we will
continue to proclaim our dissatisfaction till the whole question
of the Christian miracles is dealt with by you in a purely
inductive fashion, and the scorn or pity you affect towards
“ scientists ” and “unbelievers” we will only regard as marks
of a weak cause. I recommend to your attention the reply
of Herder, in his ‘ Survey of Spinozism, ’ to the habitual
carping of priests at science in all ages. He argues truly
that just in proportion as physical science has progressed,
men’s ideas of God and nature have been purified and raised,
and the old fancies of “the faithful” respecting the universe
as subject to blind and arbitrary control, have been dispelled.
“The forces of nature,” he says, “are eternal as the God
head in which they inhere. All is, was, and ever will be in
conformity with beneficent, beautiful, necessary law, twin
sister of eternal power, mother of all order, security, and
happiness.”
How different this view from the persistent attempts of the
guardians of ecclesiastical interests everywhere, who can with
difficulty be got to speak kindly of the most disinterested and
reverent attempts to unveil the operation of natural law, unless
the. scientific student happen to profess unquestioning belief in
their metaphysical speculations at the same time. It has rather
been the habit of orthodoxy to refer to the framework of life
around us as God-forsaken, or as containing, at best, a cold,
marred, distant, and unsatisfying revelation of the First Cause;
and this disposition of priests to undervalue revelations of
universal law through science has usually been associated with
a tendency on their part to be most dogmatic and earnest
about things that are most inscrutable—most confident in
their hair-splitting definitions of what is most indefinable.
One of your ablest theological colleagues, I remember some
time ago, charged disbelievers in his view of the supernatural
with ‘ ‘ imprisoning God within a vast and immoveable system
of natural laws.” A strange and, I fear I must say, an
ungrateful conception for any man to have of the system of
�Taken by Men of Science.
*7
the Universe as based upon law,—so constant, progressive, and
infinite in its evolutions. Might we not, with some propriety,
reply: “Orthodox theologians have imprisoned God in a
narrow creed, and represented him as if he were a mere
impersonation of dogmatic theology, or a President of an
Ecclesiastical Assembly ?” Any one who considers the move
ments of the Almighty as unnaturally restrained. because
directed by invariable laws, indicates a state of mind very
becoming, perhaps, a retained counsel defending a cape in
which he has some substantial interest; but, in my . judg
ment, neither philosophical nor religious. The very principle
of undeviating uniformity which you and your friends oppose,
the loftiest scientific minds unite in acknowledging to be the
highest mark of infinite wisdom and goodness. Without it
prudent forethought in the conduct of human affairs would be
impossible. Have you ever been conscious of any experience
material, intellectual, or spiritual that can be proved to be
above and beyond the direction of fixed natural law ? Your
birth, your education, your physical and mental growth, the
formation of your religious convictions, the influences you
have exerted and received in your intercourse with your
fellow creatures ; your work as a Christian teacher—have not
all these things been under the dominion of natural law?
And have you felt the more on that account your legitimate
freedom and happiness limited ? Well, then, you have but
to project your finite experience, in these respects, upon an
infinite scale, to form some idea (remote, I admit, but suf
ficiently clear for the purpose of the present argument) of how
compatible the control of eternal and fixed law is with the
freest movements of the First Cause.
If English Church and Chapel-goers were to trouble them
selves less about what is beyond the sphere of rational proof,
and were to occupy themselves more with the study of
natural law, upon co-operation, with which the true regene
ration of humanity depends ; if the principles of natural
morality had always held sway as the religion of churchism
has done; if science and philanthropy had always wielded
among the masses as wide an influence as theology and priest
craft have done, there would now be immensely less social
vice, physical misery, and intellectual and moral degradation ;
better sanitary regulations; a nobler bodily and mental
organisation in our fellow creatures ; a keener appreciation of
aesthetics; a livelier sense of mutual obligations between
capital and labour, between the governing and the governed,
and between parents and children; a wider diffusion of useful
knowledge, and a worthier conception of religion.
I shoidd like to refer, in concluding my remarks on the
�18
On the View of Miracles
chief theme of Dr Carpenter’s lecture, to a concession which
he makes to orthodoxy, and to which I am obliged to take
exception. The Doctor admits that prayer is efficacious in the
spiritual sphere, as far as to enable us “to obtain enlighten
ment ” as to “the will of God and strength to do or bear it.”
This concession is remarkable as showing wherein the lecturer
is illogical and unscientific in the application of his principle
of natural law. He thinks that there is “ a spiritual action
of Deity on the mind of the devout petitioner.” He accepts
the testimony of “the Religious Experience of ages” in
support of this supposed direct operation of God on the devout
mind, and he writes in the letter quoted from at the beginning
of this paper, as if he held this direct operation of God as
outside the realm of law ; and yet, while finding it convenient
to bow to the authority of “the Religious Experience of
ages” on this head, he inconsistently rejects the very
same testimony in past times, where physical miracle is
concerned. To be logical, he ought to yield to the “sanc
tion” of the “Religious Experience of ages” equally for
both kinds of preternatural interference, or for neither; for
the testimony is equally weak or strong,—just as we may
please to regard it—for both. If “the Religious Experience
of ages ” may not be trusted by a scientific man when fer
vently adduced in support of the disturbance of physical law,
why should it be trusted when it asserts the influence of
prayer, in modifying the application of law in spiritual
matters? I venture to believe that neither in “Sacred
Literature ” nor in Ecclesiastical History can there be found
a single instance in which “Enlightenment” or “strength”
was ever realised by Saints—Catholic or Protestant,—as a
preternatural result of prayer, and which could not be
realised without it. Intense religious susceptibility will
readily catch fire, in certain moods of the mind, under any
pious act, whether secluded meditation or the strain of a
farm'liar hymn or an impressive sermon ; and the glow of the
feeling, thus excited, will communicate itself to the intellect
and the will, and create a spiritual atmosphere in which
spiritual objects will be vividly realised and spiritual pur
poses vigorously executed. The reflex influence of religious
enthusiasm when directed by pure desire to know and do what
is deemed right, will always be great upon the mind. But
for Dr Carpenter to admit ‘ ‘ the spiritual agency of Deity in
the mind of man,” as he expresses it, as if it were beyond law,
while “the action of Deity in the physical universe” as
according to law, is plainly a begging of the . question.
The
mind of man,”—whatever that may be—is a part of the
Universe, and if the Universe throughout be “a system of
�Taken by Men of Science.
19
orderly evolution,” the harmony of the Universe is broken if
we allow the spiritual department to be independent of law
and the physical to be under law; and surely such a conclusion
is quite contrary to the tendency and teaching of science.
The simple fact seems to be that Dr Carpenter has studied
law as evinced in physical science ; but with the characteristic
modesty of one who knows his own class of subjects well, but
who has not, perhaps, paid the same attention to the quality
of evidence furnished by ecclesiastical history in favour of
the efficacy of prayer for spiritual guidance, he excusably
hesitates, and especially with the solemn array of “the
Religious Experience of ages ” before him, to affirm, that pre
ternatural events may not have occurred in that experience.
It is not improbable, however, that had his analysis of
Ecclesiastical testimony been as thorough as it has been of
physical phenomena, he would not have been so timid in extend
ing the application of uniform law to the spiritual sphere, and
in excluding therefrom the efficacy of prayer as an agent
capable of inducing the direct action of the Deity. The early
history of all religions, it is now well understood, should be
received with extreme caution ; first, because sound modern
criticism has demonstrated that many of the narratives in the
so-called “Sacred Literature” of nations are incapable of
positive authentication both as to authorship and contents •
secondly, because the “sacred ” and “profane ” literature alike
which details “ the Religious Experience of ages,’’pertains, in
variably, to times, places, and societies, in which imagination has
played a mightier part than reason, and in which credulity
and priestcraft, with their attendant fanaticisms, have been
signally rampant. Indeed, one might safely add, without the
least disparagement of any existing sect of religionists, that
those who profess to rely on prayer in our time, as influencing
the Deity, to impart “enlightenment” and “strength” in
the spiritual sphere, are not, as a rule, persons the Doctor
would think pre-eminently distinguished for historic and
scientific attainment, or for the judicious management of their
faculties.
I must add a word on the concluding sentence in your
letter : ‘ ‘ Wishing that you yourself may soon again pass from
darkness to the true light of life in Christ.” The wish I
cannot doubt is sincere, but it surely is one of the marks of
an arrogant system to assume, as orthodoxy always does, that
one is only in a state to have a long face pulled at him, and to
be sighed over if his theory of the Universe be not according
to the Thirty-nine Articles, the Confession of Faith, or some
other sectarian creed. Again, I affirm that in this world of
varying religious ideas, where so-called “believers” are more
�20
On the View of Miracles
affected, I make bold to say, by sentimental associations than
by deep and rational convictions, and where it is not easy
for most men to find time and ability to struggle through the
stumbling blocks theologians have placed between them and
simple religious truth, it would be a slur on eternal justice
that men should be judged in relation to their moral state or
their future destiny, by their intellectual apprehension of the
things they hold to be religious. I have said elsewhere in this
series, and I make no apology for repeating the declaration
that I know no infidelity but treachery to conscience, and no
orthodoxy but loyalty to conscience. I have felt honoured
and privileged at home and abroad by the intimate friendship
of men of all the principal sects of Europe and America, and
of men standing very sincerely aloof from all, and the im
pression has been forced upon me by my study of character
generally, that in few cases is the ordinary moral conduct of
men influenced by their theological theories and Church prac
tices ; that while it is the tendency of exciting religious dogmas
and ceremonies to spoil the class who yield themselves up
absorbedly to them, the mass of well-meaning people happily
let creeds and churches sit very lightly on them, and depend
most for guidance on those principles of common sense and
human morality which imbue well-governed minds in all
countries.
You wish that I “ may soon pass out of darkness." If my
own consciousness may be allowed to attest the nature of my
changed theological perceptions (unless you suspect “the
natural man”—that much abused Pauline phrase—now rules
within me!) I can assure you that the very opposite of dark
ness would more fitly describe my condition. I have indeed
realised, most fully, in my experience, that description in the
Epistle in a sense not intended by the author: I have “passed
from darkness to marvellous light,” and the light shines
brighter and brighter every day. “ Life in Christ ?” What
is it ? Where shall I find it ? How shall I be sure that in
accepting it according to Evangelicals. I ought not rather to
have sought it among High Churchmen, or Broad Churchmen,
or Unitarians? All these sections of Christians invite us
“unbelievers” to share this life in Christ, and at the same
time involve us in a maze of bitter controversy as to which
party has the genuine thing to offer. You tell me to accept
the Christ of the New Testament. But is it to be the Christ
of the Gospels, the miracle-worker, or the Christ of the
Epistles—the atoning sacrifice for human sin? Am I to
follow the Christology of the Synoptic gospels or that of the
fourth gospel ? The Christology of Paul or of Peter ? Perhaps
you reply that I am mainly to follow the teachings of Christ.
�Taken by Men of Science.
21
But it cannot be proved that the words ascribed to Jesus
were ever used by him, and even if they were, some of his
precepts are for our age utterly impracticable. What Christian
citizen in our day pretends to follow carefully the mode of
life laid down by Christ? Who “takes no thought for the
morrow?” It is only by taking thought that the progress of
the world can be advanced. Who, among even the most
ardent of Christian enthusiasts are willing now “to make
themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake?”
Perhaps you intend by “life in Christ” moral likeness to
Christ. But the question arises, in what are we to be like
Christ ? Are we to be like Christ in all that he clid or only in
those things we ourselves think good and excellent ? Does
the Christianity of Christlikeness include cursing fig-trees for
not having fruit on them out of their season? Does it
include whipping those we think impious with a whip of
small cords ? Does it include denouncing the inconsistent
as “whited sepulchres,” “hypocrites” and a “generation of
vipers ?” Does it include saying to one’s mother, when she
has failed to appreciate him, “Woman, what have I to do
with thee, mine hour is not yet come ?” Does it mean that
we are to tell women of other districts, when they ask for our
benevolence, “ it is not meet to take the meat of the children
and cast it to the dogs ? ” Does it include that we are to
exercise our powers to destroy 200 swine belonging to an
unoffending man ? Or does it mean that. we are to be so
little the friends of temperance as to produce 200 gallons of
good wine for our guests after they have already well drunk?”*
Whatever view, therefore, we take of “life in Christ,” we
shall meet with grave difficulties in forming a clear and defi
nite idea of what it means, and that consideration, if there
were no other, is sufficient to show that a religion so exten
sively the subject of dispute, and open to such conflicting
interpretations, was never intended to be as an organised and
a stereotyped system, the supreme, final, and exhaustive
revelation of moral and religious truth to mankind. Let it
not be understood that I undervalue the elevated tone of
spirituality and consecration attributed to Jesus in the gospels.
He, at all events, seems, above most, to have lived up to his
lights. Human life is incalculably enriched by many of the
sayings and doings ascribed to him in the New Testament.
But as far as these sayings are wise and good they contain
nothing original, and as far as the doings are noble and
historically true they are not without parallel. There is
something even broacler and more in harmony with the devout
* ‘ The Impossibility of Knowing what is Christianity,’ p. 12.
�22
On the View of Miracles, &c.
and cultured aspirations of humanity as a whole, than “life
in Christ.” I accept Jesus only as one of many prophets and
teachers necessary to the full discipline and development of
my intellect, conscience, heart, and will; but while pro
foundly grateful for the instructions of all great and good
men, I bind myself to accept implicitly and without qualifica
tion the teaching of none. Under the guidance of the best
judgment and sense I can command, I strive to discriminate
and arrive at a just conviction. The higher lights of the
nineteenth century enable me to see defects in the utterances
and conduct of the greatest sages of antiquity which their
standard of things—necessarily vague—-precluded them from
detecting. I believe in the gradual evolution of knowledge
and the gradual uplifting of the race in every department,
through human agency and in harmony with fixed law.
Owing to the natural limitation of men’s faculties, right views
in one direction will be mixed up with wrong views in another
direction, in the most valuable contributions to human
enlightenment and progress. But assertion, hypothesis and
theory in the advancement of knowledge, are sifted and
improved upon by successive great minds from age to age, and
thus the revelation of law, in its manifold applications, goes
on; man’s recognition of the vital importance of law is
quickened and deepened, and the general improvement of
mankind is the result. Life, according to the most philoso
phical understanding and practice of law in its varied relations
and bearings, is a far more healthful, rational, and useful
kind of life than the “life” which is limited by what was
thought, said, or done by “Christ,” or by any other single
man, be he ever so great or good.
Yours, &c.,
M. M.
PRINTED BY C. TV. KEYNELL, LITTLE PULTENEY STREET, HAYMARKET.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Dr. Carpenter at Sion College; or, the view of miracles taken by men of science
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 22 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: Remarks and a correspondence on a lecture given at Sion College by W. B. Carpenter on "The Reign of Law." Includes bibliographical references. The piece is signed 'M.M'. KVK gives the author as William Benjamin Carpenter.
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M., M.
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1874
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Thomas Scott
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Miracles
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br />This work (Dr. Carpenter at Sion College; or, the view of miracles taken by men of science), identified by Humanist Library and Archives, is free of known copyright restrictions.
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RA1612
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application/pdf
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Text
Language
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English
Miracles
Science
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Les miracles de Notre-Dame de Lourdes: Defi Public a la libre pensee Guerison de Juliette Fournier
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Artus, E.
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Place of publication: Paris
Collation: 58 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. First page, in front of title page proper, entitled 'Defi Public'.
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Victor Palme
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1872
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G3523
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Miracles
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French
Conway Tracts
Miracles
Notre-Dame de Lourdes
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MIRACLE
By C. KEGAN PAUL
It is needful that a layman who enters on a subject
which might well demand the pen of a professed theo
logian, should give his reasons for the following pages.
Shortly after I joined the Catholic Church, it so
chanced that an essay written by me when I was only
feeling my way towards the light, fell into the hands of
one who, still a sceptic, was longing to believe. He
sent a message to the following effect: “ Tell him that
if there be a revelation of the Truth at all, I am con
vinced that it is to be found in the Catholic Church ; I
shall read with interest whatever more he may write on
the subject, but I trust he will never attempt to mini
mize the miraculous.”
To do this was indeed the last thing that would
occur to me ; the evidence for recent miracles was
among the causes which had brought me into the
Church, and the existing supernatural order had helped
me not a little to accept the record of it through history
and as revealed in the Canon of Holy Scripture. Scarce
any sentence in Cardinal Newman’s writings had ever
struck me more than this : “The Catholic Church is
hung with miracles,” and it had enabled me to grasp
�1
Miracle
the truth that exceptions to what we call law are
potentially present in all law, that miracle is among
the evidences that we are not guided and governed by
a system of levers, screws, and wheels linked together
by an iron and unchanging necessity, but by the hand
of a Father ; a hand firm yet pliant, strong yet elastic,
behind which is will, swaying circumstances, yet allow
ing itself to move at times in accordance with them ;
no mere force set in motion once for all, careless of
what may stand in the way.
But though there was no temptation to deny miracle,
the message seemed to call foi- a statement of its claims.
There was in the mind of the speaker a feeling, whether
or not founded in fact, that miracle is ignored, slurred
over, and kept in the background ; that its existence is
to be apologized for, rather than paraded; is a difficulty
in the way of, not a testimony to, the Christian faith.
The kind of argument which I might endeavour to
place before my kindly adviser, should the occasion
offer, gradually took shape, and while I may not doubt
that my matter must be a mere commonplace to the
clergy, that which has occurred to one lay mind may
help other such under like circumstances. It may
enable them to see that the Catholic Church, mirror on
earth of God’s external government, is indeed a realm
of order and law, but manifesting constantly the
presence of a living Ruler, guiding it through the ages;
no mere jostle of atoms which, that they may move at
all, have gradually accommodated themselves to one
fixed, unalterable course.
Before entering on the subject it is necessary to
define our terms. It is undoubtedly true that the Latin
word nnraculuwi does not necessarily imply supernatural
�Miracle
3
agency, but our whole argument is based on the exist
ence of that agency. It is enough for us that miraciilum
may imply the supernatural, and we use the word only
in that sense. So far as we can approach a definition
by the use of synonymous terms, we seek information
from Holy Scripture, and find that the events, which in
common speech are called miracles, are therein named
wonders or prodigies, signs, powers, and works.
Catholic writers, as well as the late Dr. Trench—
whose work on our Lord’s miracles is worthy of atten
tion and respect, though it is occasionally disfigured
by Protestant prejudice and not always theologically
accurate—are careful to note, following Origen, that the
word “wonders” is never applied to them but in conjunc
tion with some other name, as though to show us that
the mere wonder is not the chief feature in a miracle.
“ Not that the miracle, considered simply as a wonder,
as an astonishing event which the beholders can reduce
to no law with which they are acquainted, is even as
such without its meaning and its purpose ; that purpose
being forcibly to startle men from the dull dream of a
sense-bound existence, and however it may not be in
itself an appeal to the spiritual in man, yet to act as
a summons to him that he now open his eyes to
the spiritual appeal which is about to be addressed
to him.” 1
Not all signs are miracles, but all miracles are signs,
some to confirm those who deliver a message in God’s
name, some to reveal the more immediate presence or
power of God, some to strengthen or reward individual
faith or piety.
They are described also as powers ; that is, powers
of God, evidences, according to Catholic theologians,
1 Trench, On the Miracles, popular edit., p. 3.
�4
Miracle
that new powers have entered into our world, and are
working thus for the good of mankind ; and the word
“ works ” is used, “ as though the wonderful were only
the natural form of working for Him who is dwelt in by
all the fulness of God.”
Trench’s description of a miracle is interesting : “An
astonishing event which beholders can reduce to no law
with which they are acquainted ” ; but it is inadequate,
since his description would let in the wonders of hyp
notism, clairvoyance, palmistry, etc. ; some of them
referable to law partially understood, some apparently
diabolic miracles, of which Trench is of course not
speaking. The words, however, do not in any case
form a definition, nor can we call such any of the
modes in which they are spoken of in Holy Scripture.
Just as creeds were only needed as doubts grew, and
would have been superfluous when all men believed ; so
before men had grasped the idea of the general unifor
mity of nature, before they spoke of laws of nature—by
which they do not mean law at all, but only ascertained
order—there could be no definition of what is beyond
nature, in itself only another name for the ordinary and
orderly working of God.
“Laws of God,” says Trench, “exist only for us,”
and he quotes St. Augustine : “ The will of God is the
nature of each created thing.”
“That will,” Trench continues, “being the will of
highest wisdom and love, excludes all wilfulness ; it is
a will upon which we can securely count ; from the
past expressions of it we can presume its future, and so
we rightly call it a law. But still from moment to
moment it is a will ; each law, as we term it, of nature
is only that which we have learned concerning this will
in that particular region of its activity. To say then
�Miracle
5
that there is more of the will of God in a miracle than
in any other work of His, is insufficient?’
St. Augustine, in the fourth century, seems to have
been the first writer who found it necessary to define,
or lay down a canon of, miracle. He takes the miracle
at Cana, and asserts that the change of water into wine
is God’s ordinary work in the ripening of grapes, and
their fermentation in the wine vat. Goethe, though
with an ironical and subrisive intention, has adopted
this view in the words he puts into the mouth of
Mephistopheles in Auerbach’s Keller:
Der Wein ist saftig, Holz die Reben,
Der holzerne Tisch kann Wein auch geben ;
Ein tiefer Blick in die Natur,
Hier ist ein Wunder ; glaubet nur.1
Kingsley quotes this again in Alton Locke, as well as
the words of St. Augustine, and puts the argument in
his own phrase, thus : “ Allow Jesus to have been the
Lord of Creation, and what was He doing then but
what He does in the manufacture of every grape, trans
formed from air and water even as that wine in Cana.”
In the same way St. Augustine speaks of the miracle
of Aaron’s rod that budded, reminding us that it is by
the power of God that every tree does the same ; the
whole natural order is in absolute dependence upon
God.
But take it in his own words in his treatise on the
Trinity :
“Who draws up the sap through the root of the
vine to the cluster, and makes the wine, save God
who, while man plants and waters, gives the increase ?
1 The wine is sap, and wood the vine,
The wooden table can give us wine ;
Search Nature well with earnest eyes,
Believe, and miracles arise.
�6
Miracle
But when at the command of the Lord the water was
made wine with unwonted quickness, the Divine Power
was declared, as even fools allow. Who in their
wonted fashion clothes the trees with leaf and flower,
save God ? Yet when the rod of Aaron the priest
budded, the Godhead, as it were, spake with doubting
man. . . . When such things happen in, as it were, a
kind of river of events which glide and flow from the
hidden to the seen, and the seen to the hidden in a
beaten track, they are called natural; when, in order
to warn men, they are brought about with unwonted
change, they are called miracles.”
According to this, one form of miracle, though not
at all the most surprising, is the direct revelation of
that which is ever taking place in what we call time,
but as time does not exist for God, rapidity or slowness
of His action has no meaning; He is never rapid and
is never slow, save to our apprehension ; He simply
does.
Dr. Trench works out this thought, showing that,
e.g., many of the plagues of Egypt were the natural
troubles of the land, quickened into far direr than their
usual activity. And again :
“ It is no absolute miracle that a coin should be found
in a fish’s mouth, or that a lion should meet a man and
slay him, or that a thunderstorm should happen at an
unusual period of the year, and yet these circumstances
may be so timed for strengthening faith, for punishing
disobedience, for awakening repentance; they may
serve such high purposes in God’s moral government,
that we at once range them in the catalogue of
miracles.”
St. Thomas Aquinas defines a miracle as “an effect
which is beyond the order or laws of the whole of
�Miracle
7
created nature ”—prcrter ordinem totius natures creates,1
but qualifies this to some extent in the work Contra
Gentiles : “ Those are rightly to be termed miracles
which are wrought by Divine power, apart from the
ordei' usually observed in nature.” 2
If now we attempt to classify miracles, we may dis
cover that in these also God acts by rule, and in a
manner antecedently probable ; that we shall not find
any such acts as are ascribed to their gods by men
who do not understand who and what God is—that
is to say, acts that are puerile, exaggerated, and mon
strous. We shall find no stories
Of maids with snaky tresses, or sailors turned to swine,
nor such as those of the Infancy of Jesus in the spuri
ous Gospels, at once trivial and malignant.
But before we affront the question of concrete
miracles, there is a region of wonder to be examined,
of enormous importance, if less capable of classification.
In the ecclesiastical order there are not only sacra
ments, capable of strict definition, but also what are
called sacramentals, whose nature can less be reduced
to rule and classification, as prayer, and alms, the
confession at Mass and in the Office, the blessing by
bishops and abbots, holy water, blessed ashes, palms,
candles, and the like.
So there exists, apart from concrete miracles, the
miraculous, by which term may be designated such a
state of things as we find in the Book of Genesis and
other portions of the Sacred Narrative, when God and
His angels converse familiarly with man ; or such
occurrences as those in the giving of the Law to Moses
who with the elders of Israel went up into the Mount:
1 Summa, i. ex. 4,
2 Contra Gentiles, i. 102.
�8
Miracle
“ and they saw the God of Israel.” Again, at the
Birth and Death of Jesus the invisible world became
visible, and in closer contact with everyday life.
Angels thronged round His cradle and His grave, and
the heart of the distant East was moved at the flashing
of a new star. Just in the same way, in the later
history of the Christian Church there have been periods
specially marked by the wondrous; by visions and
dreams as distinguished from concrete miracles, though
these were not wanting at such crises. At the time
that the great monastic orders were founded ; in the
lives of certain saints, notably St. Dominic, St. Francis,
and St. Teresa ; in some places, as Florence in the
thirteenth century, visions of Christ, our Lady and the
angels have revealed the nearness of the spiritual
world. In these later days, again, the apparitions at
Paray-le-Monial and at Lourdes, apart from the special
miracles there vouchsafed, bring the same truth before
the mind in an age which seemed in danger of for
getting the very existence of the supernatural.
But when closely considered, the supernatural would
seem to underlie and pervade the natural world in
some such manner as the nervous system underlies our
natural bodies, and can be manifested to and recognized
by those who seek it with intelligence at any time and
in any place ; but it is especially gathered up and
knotted together in ganglia, so that in such bundles
of nerves it becomes almost impossible not to perceive
it. The ganglia of the supernatural, so to speak, are
found at certain points of the world’s history, and we
can understand the reason for some of them, as at the
call of Abraham, the Birth of our Lord, the perfecting
the organization of the Church, the development of the
Regular Orders. Perhaps only when time is swallowed
�Miracle
9
up of eternity shall we be able to see the whole anatomy,
as it were, of the Church, and to understand the place
of all the main centres of the supernatural, why and
where they came into prominence and vision.
Now the record of these wondrous occurrences is
imperfect ; we are told that God spoke with Adam,
with Noe, with Abraham, but not the manner of the
interview ; we know not whether He manifested Him
self in some visible form or infused into heart and
conscience the knowledge of His will. We hear of
angels, but the descriptions seem to imply now man,
now God Himself, now, and this especially in the New
Testament, bright beings, neither God nor man, “ with
the power of a divine nature, and the compassionate
tenderness of a kindly human heart.” Still less we know
not whethei' our Lady’s alleged delivery of the rosary
to St. Dominic, of the scapular to St. Simon Stock, of
the habit to the Servite Fathers, were what we call, in
modern philosophic language, objective or subjective,
or whether it were on the confines of both, the vision
being subjective, but tangible objects remaining in the
hands of the recipients. We know not, and perhaps
we shall never know ; yet a few words may be per
mitted on the subject, which may aid in clearing the
difficulty.
We may be content to leave the question of objec
tiveness and subjectiveness on one side, when the Saint
who has given us the most remarkable, if short, detail
of his own experiences was unable to resolve the
problem. St. Paul tells us that he—for no one has
ever doubted that he spoke of himself—was caught up
into the third heaven, and heard words which it was
not allowed him to utter, also that he had visions and
revelations more than others ; but he goes on to say
�IO
Miracle
that he knows not whether he was then in the body or
out of the body, whether the visions and his transpor
tation to heaven were or were not objective. But that
which was objective remained : the thorn in the flesh,
however the words be interpreted, some sharp bodily
ailment, visible, tangible to himself, and probably also
to others. So St. Francis and other saints who have
been marked with the stigmata, down to this century,
in which Maria Morl, the ecstatica of the Tirol, bore
the same signs of her suffering God, would all have
been content to leave unanswered.the question whether
their visions were of the bodily or mental eye, but
there was no doubt at all that the wounds were out
ward facts, wherewith they were marked as sharers in
the Passion of Jesus.
Indeed, we may go further and say that tangibility
and visibility, according to the senses, have nothing to
do with reality. Our Lord’s wounds were as real on
His risen Body when Thomas did not see them as
when he was graciously permitted to behold and touch ;
He was as truly the Christ when He walked with the
disciples to Emmaus, and their eyes were hoklen that
they knew Him not, as afterwards when He made
Himself known to them in the breaking of bread ; He
was as truly existent when invisibly, intangibly He
passed the sealed stone and closed doors, as when, in
the sight of crowds, He hung upon the Cross.
It will probably have struck all thoughtful persons
that the conception of angels as represented in art was
of slow growth and late development. But if in our
day God were pleased to allow us, as He has from time
to time allowed certain of the saints—for instance, St.
Philip Neri and St. Frances of Rome—to see our
Guardian Angel, it would be almost as great an
�Miracle
11
astonishment as to see him at all, were we not to see
him like the angel of some well-known picture, or at
least like some abstraction and combination of many.
And this, although we know and believe the Church’s
doctrine that an angel is pure spirit, bodiless, im
palpable, therefore only seeming to be in human form,
with those added qualities which denote swiftness and
strength and unceasing watchfulness. It stands to
reason that if a being always waiting in God’s presence
to do His will, “ glorious, benignant, beautiful,” manifest
himself to man, it must be under a form in which man
has already conceived of him, else he will rather terrify,
or make no impression at all. Hence when converse
with angels was frequent, and no ideal portraits had
been made of those bright spirits, Abraham and the
other Patriarchs, Manoah and young Tobias, saw them
in the forms of men ; and only by after events, or upon
some wondrous act of the Angel, did the recipient of
these gracious visits recognize what they were.
So with apparitions of Christ and our Lady. It is
most natural that Christ should appear either as the
Babe of Bethlehem, or as He who treads the wine-press
of the Cross ; as the thorn-crowned Martyr, or the King
of Glory, appearing, according as the needs of those to
whom He comes require that He should be seen.
Our Lady comes as the Virgin of the Annunciation,
the Mater Dolorosa and Maria Assumpta ; the elderly
woman bowed with sorrow, who bends over her Son in
Francia’s Pieta, or the Virgin ever fair and young as
Murillo imagined her, with the crescent moon beneath
her feet; or again, as she showed herself to Bernadette
Soubirous at Lourdes.
Much more is all this true of God Himself—that
Being without body, parts, or passions—if He talk or
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Miracle
live familiarly with man. If on Him be laid no inherent
necessity in regard to Himself, there is an inherent
necessity in regard to us. We know ourselves as the
crown of His creation, hence we can only think of God
as one of whom our souls are like, but greater, wiser,
nobler than we, and if He talk with man it must be as
a man talketh with his friend.
So much it was well to say about the borderland
of wonders which are yet not concrete miracles, but
it is enough to indicate the explanation which woultl be
given, where any is possible or desirable. The border
land of wonder, though only revealed through chinks,
is yet sufficiently disclosed to show how near are the
worlds of sight and faith, how interchangeable is one
with the other, so that even in this life the mists which
hide the supernatural may and do clear away. We
cannot always perceive the gulf which exists between
the objective and the subjective, between body and
spirit, and when we do see it, may understand that only
to us is that gulf impassable. Past, present, and future
are one and the same to God, the unchangeable
everlasting Now.
Concrete and definite miracles arrange themselves,
for the most part, in special groups, as may be easily
seen by any one who will take the trouble' to make lists
of those occurring in the Bible, in ecclesiastical history,
or in any collection of the Lives of the Saints. We
may take, as typical of such groups, unexpected births ;
healing from sickness, with or without the use of
natural means ; raising from the dead ; the change of
substance, as of water into wine ; or of property, as
when the axe-head rose to the surface of the pool.
There are again others which seem to stand alone, only
because we are unaware of instances of the same kind,
�Miracle
T
for it cannot be supposed that all miracles have been
recorded, as when the walls of Jericho fell at the
blowing of the trumpets ; there are others wherein
a wondrous gift abides in the matter of the miracle,
which is continuous, and not confined to a single mani
festation. Such are those wherein Elias and Eliseus
caused meal and bread and oil to multiply as long as
f need required, or that in which the blood of St.
Januarius continues to liquefy, so often as the conditions
of its first liquefaction are repeated ; or that of the oil
which still continues to flow from the bones of St. Wal
burga, who died in the eighth century, and from those
of St. Nicholas of Bari, in the fourth. If we classify the
instances of miracle in several groups, their repetitions
under like circumstances at various periods in the
world’s history may help us in a degree to understand
both the ordinary rule of God, and the rule, so to speak,
of the exception ; remembering that the ultimate rule
of God is always and only His good pleasure and His
sovereign will.
But there is one miracle which cannot be classified,
and falls into no group: alone in the world’s history,
it is like the sun which God has set in the firmament
for the light of our system. This is, of course, the
/ miracle of the Incarnation, when, by the glad co
operation of Mary, she, the one sinless and stainless
creature, became the Mother of her God—she,
Pattern of seraphs, only worthy ark
To bear her God athwart the floods of time.
In speaking of other wonders, whereat men stumble,
Cardinal Newman has well said that all is as nothing in
comparison with this • “ no miracle can be so great as
that which took place in the holy house at Nazareth.”
�M
Miracle
And with the same thought Dr. Trench says, “ The
great miracle is the Incarnation ; all else, so to speak,
follows naturally and of course.”
But though this be so, there are still certain events
recorded in Holy Scripture which have been called
“ preludings of the Incarnation,” some of which, foretold
by the Prophets, and having in their days found a first
accomplishment, were afterwards regarded as having
their complete fulfilment only in the Birth of Christ.
In these events God would seem to show His abiding
sway over the life, and reproduction, and births of men.
It is of Him that one marriage is fruitful and another
is not: “ Children and the fruit of the womb are an
heritage and gift that cometh of the Lord.” And this
fact, which we are apt to forget, He from time to time
accentuates, as it were, by the births of children when
such seem unlikely or impossible. Isaac, for instance,
was born when it appeared almost against the course
of nature that he should be, and the birth was heralded
by the message of an angel; Samson, not, so far as we
hear under the same circumstances of extreme unlikeli
hood, but still against hope, after a similar angelic
word. The High Priest, Heli, foretold the birth of
Samuel, Eliseus that of the son of the woman of Sunam.
An angel, again, declared that St. John Baptist should
be born when Zachary and Elizabeth were well stricken
in years, and that event immediately heralded the
Nativity which, as has been said, stands alone.
Closely connected with this is that class of miracles
which is concerned with restoration to life at the Divine
word, whether spoken by the Lord Himself, by His
Prophets, or His Saints. Elias restored the widow’s
son, Eliseus the boy given so strangely to the Sunamite
woman. In these there was, as it were, a struggle
�Miracle
15
between death and life, death retreated unwillingly.
Not till the Lord of life came could any speak abso
lutely, so that the power might work without hindrance.
Jesus alone could say, “ Damsel, arise,” or “ Lazarus,
come forth,” with the same calmness with which He
said all else that passed His gracious lips ; Him alone
can we address :
Thou madest Life in man and brute ;
Thou madest Death ; and lo, Thy foot
Is on the skull which Thou hast made.
But the gift was afterwards bestowed upon the Saints
in much the same manner as it had been on the Prophets.
St. Benedict, in the sixth century, did not say to the
peasant who implored him to give him again his dead
son : “ Go thy way, thy son liveth,” like his Master, but
he prostrated himself on the body of the child in prayer,
and the child’s soul came back again. And in the
fifteenth century, St. Casimir the King raised a girl to
life by the touch of his body, and a boy carried to the
tomb of St. Peter of Luxembourg was restored, though
in his case the skull had been fractured and the brain
in part dashed out.
This brings us to those miracles which cause so great
perplexity in these later days: those which are wrought
by relics—that is, to put it plainly, by the material con
tact of the body of a dead Saint, or a portion of it, or
the touch of some garment from the sacred body. The
sanctity of relics is brought out but little in the Old
Testament, but coming into strong prominence in the
New, it has remained with the Church to this day, and
relics are one of the two main channels in which God’s
power is manifested to man. The instance in the Old
Testament is so typical that it may well be quoted at
length, especially as it is one of the most wonderful
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Miracle
works wrought by relics : “ And Eliseus died and they
buried him. And the rovers from Moab came into the
land the same year. And some that were burying a
man saw the rovers, and cast the body into the sepulchre
of Eliseus. And when it had touched the bones of
Eliseus, the man came to life, and stood upon his
feet.”
Of course the central point of all such wonders is the
healing touch of the garments worn by our Blessed
Lord, whether those spoken of in the Gospels, or,
if we may trust imperfect evidence, a coat worn by
our Lord, and now preserved at Treves ; but closely
linked with these are the handkerchiefs which had
touched the body of St. Paul, and healed the sick to
whom they were applied. It must be remembered that
the miracles wrought by such relics, the Holy Coat or
a thorn from the Crown worn on the Cross, or a frag
ment of the Cross itself, or the relics of the Saints, are,
conversely, testimonies to the authenticity of the relics
themselves.
This class of miracles is especially interesting, as it
is that to which more than any other the Church has
set her seal, not only as happening in times past, but as
existing down to and in our own days. She has made
miracles the test, or at least one of the tests of sanctity.
Every man or woman admitted into her calendar of
Saints must have two proved miracles to his or her
account, and these are necessarily for the most part
connected with relics.
Another class is associated with objects, not relics,
into which, under certain conditions, the gift of healing
is infused. For Naaman the Syrian healing power
was infused into the waters of Jordan only, the rivers
of Syria being powerless in his case. The Pool of
�Miracle
Siloam was troubled each day for the first who stepped
into it, and in that case our Lord revealed the power
of God that underlay the waters, by healing directly
without their aid. The works done at certain fountains
are attested by many scientific men, who believe their
virtue, in spite of preconceived ideas—whether, as at
St. Winifred’s Well, the powers of the waters have been
known and proved through centuries, or have been
manifested but recently, as at Lourdes or Oostacker.
Indeed, not to specify every class under which
miracles may be grouped, it is not too much to say
that there are few such occurrences which have not a
prototype in the Old Testament, a fulfilment in the
New, a repetition in the Lives of the Saints and the
history of the Church ; and if in some cases the exact
counterpart is not found in later history, it is only
because the Lives of the Saints are so crowded with
miracle, that it is not always possible, as it is not
necessary, to find among so great a treasure the exact
detailed equivalent. But the parallels which present
themselves without difficulty will show at once what
is meant.
The Prophet Habacuc was carried from Judasa to
Babylon by the Angel of the Lord, that he might feed
Daniel in the den of lions with the pottage which he
was bearing to the reapers at home; and in like manner
Philip the Deacon was transported from Gaza to Azotus.
Elias gained abundance of rain ; so did St. Scholastica,
the sister of St^Benedict. If Elias and Eliseus multi
plied meal and oil, thus anticipating our Lord’s
miracles of the loaves and fishes ; so after Him did
St. John Joseph of the Cross multiply food so lately as
the early part of the eighteenth century, and St. Agnes
of Montepulciano in the thirteenth.
�i8
Miracle
If the Three Holy Children walked unharmed in the
midst of the burning fiery furnace ; so St. Lucy re
mained unscathed, though resin and oil were poured
on the fire into which she was thrown, and St. Cecilia
remained a day and a night in an hot-air bath heated
seven times beyond its wont ; so too St. Peter Gonzalez
lay on hot burning coals uninjured, to save the soul of
a woman who tempted him to sin.
The face of Moses beamed with rays of light when
he came out from the more immediate presence of God,
in prophecy of that Transfiguration of Jesus which the
disciples saw upon the mountain ; and so the face of
St. Francis Caracciolo, in the seventeenth century,
emitted brilliant beams of light before the Blessed
Sacrament.
Moses struck the rock in the desert, so that there
flowed a rill for the refreshing of Israel ; and St. Isidore
of Madrid in time of drought made the sign of the
Cross on dry ground, and pierced the soil with his ox
goad, so that thence flowed waters which run even till
this day and are endowed with healing virtue.
St. Hyacinth, in the thirteenth century, walked the
waters of the Dnieper, as our Lord walked the waves
of the Galilaean Lake ; but he bare the image of our
Lady and the Sacred Host in his hands, so that He
who trod the wraves before him, and stretched out His
hand to St. Peter as he was sinking, was really the
power who held him up.
At the outset of this essay words vgere cited from
Cardinal Newman, as introducing the subject. The
whole passage may be quoted as summing up the
argument :
“ The Catholic Church from east to west, from north
to south is, according to our conceptions, hung with
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19
miracles. The store of relics is inexhaustible ; they
are multiplied through all lands, and each particle of
each has in it at least a dormant, perhaps an energetic
virtue of supernatural operation. At Rome there is the
True Cross, the crib of Bethlehem, and the chair of
St. Peter ; portion of the crown of thorns are kept at
Paris ; the holy coat is shown at Treves ; the winding
sheet at Turin ; at Monza, the iron crown is formed
out of a nail of the Cross, and another nail is claimed
for the Duomo of Milan ; and pieces of our Lady’s
habit are to be seen in the Escurial. The Agnus Dei,
blessed medals, the cord of Francis, are all the medium
of divine manifestations and graces. Crucifixes have
bowed the head to, and Madonnas have bent their eyes
upon, assembled crowds. St. Januarius’s blood liquefies
periodically at Naples, and St. Winifred’s Well is the
scene of wonders even in an unbelieving country.
Women are marked with the sacred stigmata ; blood
has flowed on Fridays from their five wounds, and their
heads are crowned with a circle of lacerations. Relics
are ever touching the sick, the diseased, the wounded,
sometimes with no result at all, at other times with
marked and undeniable efficacy. Who has not heard
of the abundant favours gained by the intercession of
the Blessed Virgin, and of the marvellous consequences
which have attended the invocation of St. Antony of
Padua ? These phenomena are sometimes reported of
saints in their lifetime, as well as after death especially
if they were evangelists or martyrs. The wild beasts
crouched before their victims in the Roman amphi
theatre ; the axe-man was unable to sever St. Cecilia’s
head from her body, and St. Peter elicited a spring of
water for his jailer’s baptism in the Mamertine. St.
Francis Xavier turned salt water into fresh for five
�20
Miracle
hundred travellers ; St. Raymond was transported over
the sea on his cloak ; St. Andrew shone brightly in the
dark ; St. Scholastica gained by her prayers a pouring
rain ; St. Paul was fed by ravens, and St. Frances saw
her Guardian Angel.”
Cardinal Newman then discusses the reasons for
disbelief in miracle since Biblical, or at least since
Apostolic days, which we may condense, but using
his own words.
“ Both they [the opponents] start with the miracles
of the Apostles ; and then their first principle or
presumption against our miracles is this, 1 What God
did once, He is not likely to do again.’ They say, it
cannot be supposed He will work many miracles ; we,
it cannot be supposed He will work/ew.”
Again :
“They do not say, ‘St. Francis, or St. Antony, or
St. Philip Neri did no miracles for the evidence for
them is worth nothing,’ or, because what looked like a
miracle was not a miracle ’: no, but they say, ‘ It is
impossible they should have wrought miracles.’”
Again :
“ Catholics hold the mystery of the Incarnation, and
the Incarnation is the most stupendous event which
ever can take place on earth ; and after it, and hence
forth I do not see how we can scruple at any miracle on
the mere ground of it being unlikely to happen. No
miracle can be so great as that which took place in the
holy house of Nazareth ; it is infinitely more difficult to
believe than all the miracles of the breviary, of the
martyrology, of saints’ lives, of legends, of local tradi
tions put together ; and there is the grossest incon
sistency on the very face of the matter, for any one so
to strain out the gnat and swallow the camel as to
�Miracle
21
profess what is inconceivable, yet to protest against
what is surely within the limits of intelligible hypo
thesis. If, through divine grace we once are able to
accept the solemn truth that the Supreme Being was
born of a mortal woman, what is there to be imagined
which can offend us on the ground of its marvellous
ness ? . . . When we start with assuming that miracles
are not unlikely, we are putting forth a position which
lies embedded as it were, and involved in the great
revealed fact of the Incarnation.”
So much is plain at starting ; but more is plain too.
“ Miracles are not only not unlikely, they are
positively likely ; and for this simple reason, because,
for the most part, when God begins He goes on. We
conceive that when He first did a miracle, He began a
series ; what He commenced, He continued ; what has
been, will be. Surely this is good and clear reasoning.
. . . Our first principles that miracles are not unlikely
now is not at all a strange one in the mouths of those
who believe that the Supreme Being came miraculously
into this world, miraculously united Himself to man's
nature, passed a life of miracles, and then gave His
Apostles a greater gift of miracles than He exercised
Himself. So far on the principle itself ; and now, in
the next place, see what comes of it.
“This comes of it, that there are two systems going
on in the world, one of nature, and one above nature ;
and two histories, one of common events, and one of
miracles ; and each system and each history has its own
order.”
And as a conclusion of what he has said we find this
clear statement :
“ For myself, lest I seem in any way to be shrinking
from a determinate judgement on the claims of some
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Miracle
miracles and relics . . . and to be hiding particular
questions in what is vague and general, I will avow
distinctly that, putting out of the question the hypo
thesis of unknown laws of nature (that is, of the
professed miracle being not miraculous), I think it
impossible to withstand the evidence which is brought
for the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius at
Naples, and for the motion of the eyes of the pictures
of the Madonna in the Roman States. I see no reason
to doubt the material of the Lombard crown at Monza,
and I do not see why the holy coat at Treves may not
have been what it professes to be. I firmly believe that
portions of the True Cross are at Rome and elsewhere,
that the crib of Bethlehem is at Rome and the bodies
of St. Peter and St. Paul also. I believe that at Rome
too lies St. Stephen, that St. Matthew lies at Salerno,
and St. Andrew at Amalfi. I firmly believe that the
relics of the saints are doing innumerable miracles and
graces daily, and that it needs only for a Catholic to
show devotion to any saint in order to receive special
benefits from his intercession. I firmly believe that
saints in their lifetime have before now raised the dead
to life, crossed the sea without vessels, multiplied grain
and bread, cured incurable diseases, and superseded
the operation of the laws of the universe in a multitude
of ways.”
And here our essay might close, but that we must not
press the argument too far, and that we are bound to
consider if there be any—and, if any, what—difference
between ecclesiastical miracles and those recorded in
the Scriptures. We answer that there is no difference
in principle ; it is of faith, that God who worked
hitherto in that manner still continues to work. But
there is a difference in detail. The Scriptural miracles,
�Miracle
one and all, rest on divine faith, and each must be
accepted without doubt. But although miracles out of
Scripture become the object of private faith, no Catholic
is bound to believe in any particular miracle of this
kind ; but he cannot without unsound doctrine deny
that miracles have occurred since the Apostolic age.
Every Catholic again “ owes respect to the judgement
of high ecclesiastical authority ; but within these limits
he is left to the freedom and the responsibilities of
private judgement.”
Enough, however, has surely been said to show that
if we reject not one here or there, on which it may be
right that we suspend our judgement, but whole classes
of miracles, because of their unlikelihood, we cut the
ground from under all others of the same class. And if
we rest our belief on evidence, it is impossible to have
more than exists in the case, especially, of modern
miracles, which have been examined for processes of
canonization or beatification. No legal tribunal sifts
facts in a more thorough mannei' than does the Congre
gation of Rites.
It is possible to say consistently : There is no such
thing as miracle ; the universe is a mere mechanism,
which came into action none knows how, but at any
rate acts by changeless law ; it is not possible to say
that it once existed, but ceased at this or that precise
period, and the reign of changeless law now obtains.
What is this but to take the finger and guidance of God
away from His creation, and to say that the heart of the
universe has ceased to beat ?
If it be true that “every fatherhood is of God,” and
that all rule, authority, and power are signs of Him ; so,
conversely, must it be true that all that we call good
government, order, and rule in a family or a state shows
�24
Miracle
forth the mode in which He directs His creation. And
that is the best government in which the ordinary
operations of life go on unmarked and evenly, but in
which the master or ruler manifests his authority from
time to time, whether in the way of change, or evidence
of direct governance. That rule is not best which is
merely mechanical, but that which shows itself as order
tempered by love, regularity varied by change.
We cannot expect that all can actually witness the
evidence of God’s interference in His world, any more
than all the many jnillions of an earthly sovereign can
see his progress and his state. But they know that his
pageants and processions take place from time to time,
he flashes a message of condolence in calamities, he
exercises now and then his prerogative of mercy, he
dispenses honours and rewards ; many are gratified by
the favours given to one.
And so with God’s governance. We believe that our
King rules, and does honour to His saints, and to the
crowd here and there because of His saints. Round
such and such a holy well or image His powers cluster
and throng ; here and there, now and then, bright
angels who always “ stand in order serviceable ” flash
into sight, or show without vision that they are present.
It is a part of His order now and then to break His
order, to prove that it rests upon His will. We know
Him in the constant succession of light and dark, in the
steady sequence of cause and effect, in all the order
which He called good; and we know Him also in
miracle and wonder, underlying His law from the
beginning; the visible evidence of eternal power,
infinite wisdom, everlasting love.
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY THE CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY, LONDON.
U.—March, 1908.
�
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Pamphlet
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Title
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Miracle
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Paul, C. Kegan (Charles Kegan) [1828-1902]
Description
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 24 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
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Catholic Truth Society
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[1908]
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RA1551
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Miracles
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work (Miracle), identified by </span><span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a></span><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
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English
Miracles
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Text
NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
Myth
AND
MIRACLE
A Nev lecture
BY
COL. R. G. INGERSOLL.
PRICE ONE PENNY.
LONDON:
PROGRESSIVE PUBLISHING COMPANY
28 Stonecutter Street, E.C.
1886.
�INTRODUCTION.
The following is reprinted from the
It is a report, evidently not in full, but probably
containing the best and freshest portions, of a lecture
delivered in the Boston Theatre on Sunday evening,
October 11, by Colonel R. G. Ingersoll, the great
American orator, whose Freethought discourses are
more popular in the United States than the addresses
of any Christian speaker, not even excepting Ward
Beecher.
The audience was very enthusiastic,
and crowded the theatre to the very doors.
�Myth and Miracle.
Ladies and Gentlemen :—What, after all, is the
object of life j what is the highest possible aim ? The
highest aim is to accomplish the only good. Happi
ness is the only good of which man by any possibility
can conceive. The object of life is to increase human
joy, and the means, intellectual and physical develop
ment. The question, then, is, Shall we rely upon
superstition or upon growth ? Is intellectual develop
ment the highway of progress, or must we depend on
the pit of credulity ? Must we rely on belief or
credulity, or upon manly virtues, courageous investi
gation, thought, and intellectual development f For
thousands of years men have been talking about
religious freedom. I am now contending for the
freedom of religion, not religious freedom—for the
freedom which is the only real religion. Only a few
years ago our poor ancestors tried to account foi
what they saw. Noticing the running river, the
shining star, or the painted flower, they put a spirit
in the river, a spirit in the star, and another in the
flower. Something makes this river run, something
makes this star shine, something paints the bosom of
�4
that flower. These were all spirits. That was the
first religion of mankind—fetishism—and in every
thing that lived, everything that produced an effect
upon them, they said, “This is a spirit that lives
within.'” That is called the lowest phase of religious
thought, and yet it is quite the highest phase of religi
ous thought. One by one these little spirits died.
One by one non-entities took their places, and
last of all
WE HAVE ONE INFINITE FETISIl
that takes the place of all others. Now, what makes
the river run ? We say the attraction of gravitation,
and we know no more about that than we do about
this fetish. What makes the tree grow ? The
principle of life—vital forces. These are simply
phrases; simply names of ignorance. Nobody knows
what makes the river run, what makes the trees
grow, why the flowers burst and bloom—nobody
knows why the stars shine, and probably nobody
ever 'will know.
There are two horizons that have never been passed
by man—origin and destiny. All human knowledge
is confined to the diameter of that circle. All
religions rest on supposed facts beyond the circum
ference of the absolutely known. (Applause.) What
next ? The next thing that came in the world—the
next man—was the myth-maker. He gave to these
little spirits human passions; he clothed ghosts in
flesh; he warmed that flesh with blood ; and in that
blood he put desire—motive. And the myths were
born, and were only produced through the fact of
the impressions that Nature makes upon the brain of
�5
man. They were every one a natural production,
and let me say here to-night that what men call
monstrosities are only natural productions. Every
religion has grown just as naturally as the grass;
every one, as I said before, and it cannot be said too
often, has been naturally produced. All the Christs,
all the gods and goddesses, all the furies and fairies,
all the mingling of the beastly and human, were
produced by the impressions of Nature upon the
brain of man—by the rise of the sun, the silver dawn,
the golden sunset, the birth and death of day, the
change of seasons, the lightning, the storm, the
beautiful bow—all these produced within the brain of
man all myths, and they are all natural productions.
(Applause.)
There have been certain myths universal among
men. Gardens of Eden have been absolutely universal
—the Golden Age, which is absolutely the same thing.
And what was the Golden Age born of ? Any old
man in Boston will tell you that fifty years ago all
people were honest. (Applause). Fifty years ago
all people were sociable—there was no stuck-up aris
tocracy then. Neighbors were neighbors. Mer
chants gave full weight. Everything was full length;
everything was a yard wide and all wool. (Applause).
Now everybody swindles everybody else, and calls it
business. (Applause). Go back fifty years, andfyoh.
will find an old man who will tell you that there
was
A TIME WHEN ALL WERE HONEST.
Go back another fifty years, and you will find
another sage who will tell you the same story;
�6
Every man looks back to his youth—to the golden
age ; and what is true of the individual is true of the
whole human race. It has its infancy, its manhood,
an d, finally, will have an old age. The Garden of
Eden is not back of us. There are more honest men,
good women, and obedient children in the world to-day
than ever before. The myth of the Elysian fields is uni
versally born of sunsets. When the golden clouds
in the West turned to amethyst, sapphire andpurple?
the poor savage thought it a vision of another land
—a land without care or grief; a world of perpetual
joy. This myth was born of the setting of the
sun.
A universal myth all nations have believed in
floods.
Savages found everywhere evidences of
the sea having been above the earth, and saw
in the shells souvenirs of the ocean's visit. It
had left its’ cards on the tops of mountains. The
savage knew nothing of the slow rising and sinking of
the crust of the earth. He did not dream of it. We
now know that where the mountains lift their granite
foreheads to the sun, the billows once held sway, and
that where the waves dash into white caps of joy the
mountains will stand once more. Everywhere the
land is, the ocean will be; and where the ocean is, the
land will be. The Hindoos believe in the Flood mythTheir hero, who lived almost entirely on water, went
to the Ganges to perform his ablutions, and, taking
up a little water in his hand, he saw a small fish, that
prayed him to save it from the monster of the river,
and it would save him in turn from his enemies. He
did so, and put it into different receptacles until it
�7
grew so large that he let it loose in the sea ; then it
was large enough to take care of itself. The fish told
him that there was going to be an immense flood, and
told him to gather all kinds of seed and take two of
each kind of animal of use to man, and he would come
along with an ark and take them all in. He told him
to pick out seven saints. And the fish towed the ark
along tied to its horns, and took them in and carried
them to the top of a mountain, where he hitched the
ark to a tree. (Applause.) When the waters receded,
they came out and followed them down until they
reached the plain. There were the same number—
eight—in this ark as there were with Noah.
I find that the myth of the Virgin Mother is uni-'
versal.
THE VIRGIN MOTHER IS THE EARTH.
1 find also in all countries the idea of a Trinity.
In Egypt I find Isis, Osiris and Horus. This idea
prevailed in Central America among the Aztecs. We
find the myth of the Judgment almost universal. I
imagine men have seen so much injustice here that
they naturally expect that there must be some day of
final judgment somewhere.
(Applause). Nearly
every Theist is driven to the necessity of having
another world in which his God may correct thb mis
takes he has made in this. We find on the walls of
Egyptian temples pictures of the judgment—the
righteous all go on the right hand, and those un
worthy on the left.
The myth of the Sun-god was universal. Agni
was the sun-god of the Hindoos. He was called
�8
the most generous of all gods, yet he ate his
own father and mother. Baldur was another sun
god ; he was a sun-myth. Hercules was a sun
god, and so was Samson. Jonah, too, was a sun-g’od,
and was swallowed by a fish. • So was Hercules, and
a wonderful thing is, that they were swallowed in
about the same place, near Joppa. Where did the
big fish go ? When the sun went down under the
earth, it was thought to be followed by the fish,
which was said to swallow it, and carry it safely
through the under-world. The sun thus came to be
represented as the body of a woman with the tail of
a fish, and so the mermaid was born. (Applause).
Another strange thing is that all the sun-gods were
born near Christmas.
The myth of Red Riding Hood was known am ong
the Aztecs. The myth of the Eucharist came from
the story of Ceres and Bacchus. When the cakes
made by the' product of the field were eaten, it
was of the body of Ceres, and when the wine
was drunk, it was the blood of Bacchus. From this
idea the eucharist was born. There is nothing original
in Christianity.
Holy water! Another myth. The Hindoos
imagined that the water had its source in the
throne of God. The Egyptians thought the Nile
sacred, Greece was settled by Egyptian colonies, and
they carried with them the water of the Nile; and
when anyone died the water was sprinkled on him.
Finally Rome conquered Greece physically, but
Greece conquered Rome intellectually.
(Loud
Applause).
�9
This is the myth of holy water, and with it grew
up
THE IDEA OF BAPTISM.
and I presume that that is as old as water and dirt.
(Applause.)
The cross is another universal symbol. There
was once an ancient people in Italy before the
Romans, before the Etruscans. They faded from the
world, and history does not even know the name of
that nation. We find where they buried the ashes of
their dead, and we find chiselled, hundred of years
• before Christ, the cross, a symbol of hope of another
life. We find the cross in Egypt, in the cylinders
from Babylon, and, more than that, we find them in
Central America. On the temples of the Aztecs we
find the cross, and on it a bleeding, dying god. Our
cross was built in the Middle Ages.
When Adam was very sick he sent Seth, his son,
to the Garden of Eden. He told him he would have
no trouble in finding it; all he had to do was to
follow the tracks made by his mother and father when
they left it. (Applause.) He wanted a little balsam
from the tree of life that he might not die. Seth
found there a cherub with flaming sword, who would
not let him pass the door. He moved his wing so
that he could see in, and he saw the tree of life, with
its roots running down to hell, and among them Cain,
the murderer. The angel gave Seth three seeds, and
told him to put them in his father’s mouth when he
was buried, and to watch the effect. The result was
that three trees grew up—one pine, one cedar, and
�10
•one cypress. Solomon cut down one of these trees
to put in the temple, but it grew through the roof and
he threw it into the pool of Bethesda. When the
soldiers went for a beam on which to crucify Christ
they took this tree and made a cross of it. Helena,
the mother of Constantine, went to Jerusalem to
find this cross. She found the two crosses also
that the thieves were crucified on. They could
not tell which was which, so they called a sick
woman, who touched them, and when she touched
the right one she was immediately made whole.
Such is myth and fable. The history of one reli
gion is substantially the history of all religions. In
embryo man lives all lives. The man of genius knows
within himself the history of the human racej he
knows the history of all religions.
The man of
imagination, of genius, having seen a leaf and a
drop of water, can construct the forests, the rivers
and the seas. In his presence all the cataracts fall
and foam, the mists rise and the clouds form and
float. To really know one fact is to know its kindred
and its neighbors. Shakespeare, looking at a coat
of mail, instantly imagined the society, the conditions
that produced it, and what it, in its turn, produced.
He saw the castle, the moat, the drawbridge, the lady
in the tower, and the knightly lover spurring over the
plain. He saw the bold baron and the rude retainer,
the trampled serfs and all the glory and the grief of
feudal life.
The man of imagination has lived the life of all
people, of all races. He has been a citizen of Athens
in the days of Pericles; has listened to the eager elo
�11
quence of the great orator, and has sat upon the
cliff, and with the tragic poet heard “ the multitu
dinous laughter of the sea?" He has seen Socrates
thrust the spear of question through the shield and
heart of falsehood—was present when the great man
drank hemlock and met the night of death tranquil
as a star meets morning. He has followed the peri
patetic philosophers, and has been puzzled by the
sophists. He has watched Phidias, as he chiselled
shapeless stone to forms of love and awe. He has
lived by the slow Nile, amid the vast and monstrous.
He knows the very thought that wrought the form
and features of the Sphinx. He has heard great
Memnon’s morning song—has lain him down with
the embalmed dead, and felt within their dust the
expectation of another life, mingled with cold and
suffocating doubts—the children born of long delay.
He has walked the ways of mighty Rome, has seen
great Caesar with his legions in the field,
has stood with vast and motley throngs and
watched the triumphs given to victorious
men, followed by uncrowned kings, the cap
tured hosts and all the spoils of ruthless war.
He has heard the shout that shook the Coli
seum s roofless walls when from the reeling gladiator’s
hand the short sword fell, while from his bosom
gushed the stream of wasted life. Ho has lived the
life of savage men—has trod the forest’s silent depths,
and in the desperate game of life or death has matched
his thought against the instinct of the beast. He
has sat beneath the bo-tree’s contemplative shade,
rapt in Buddha’s mighty thought, and he has dreamed
�12
all dreams that Light, the alchemist, hath wrought
from dust and dew and stored within the slumbrous
poppjds subtle blood. He has knelt with awe and
dread at every prayer ; has felt the consolation and
the shuddering fear; has seen all the devils; has
mocked and worshipped all the gods; enjoyed all
heavens, and felt the pangs of every hell. He has
lived all lives, and through his blood and brain have
crept the shadow and the chill of every death, and
his soul, Mazeppa-like, has been lashed naked to the
wild horse of every fear and love and hate. The
imagination has a stage within the brain, whereon he
sets all scenes that lie between the morn of laughter
and the night of tears, and where his players body
forth the false and true, the joys and griefs, the care
less shallows and the tragic deeps of human life.
(Tremendous applause.)
Through with the myth-makers, we now come to
the wonder-worker. There is this between the miracle
and the myth—a myth is an idealism of a fact, and a
miracle is a counterfeit of a fact. There is some
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A MYTH AND A MIRACLE.
There is the difference that there is between fiction
and falsehood, and poetry and perjury. (Applause).
Miracles are probable only in the far past or the very
remote future. The present is the property of the
natural. (Applause). You say to a man,“ The dead
were raised 4,000 years ago.” He says,(C Well, thatfs
reasonable.” You say to him, “ In 4,000,000 years
we shall all be raised.” He says, “ That is what I
believe.” Say to him, “ A man was raised from the
�13
dead this morning,^ and he will say, “ What are you
giving us ?” (Laughter). Miracles never convinced
at the time they were said to have been performed.
[The speaker here spoke of several instances related
in the Bible sustaining this statement.] He con
tinued : John the Baptist was the forerunner of
Christ. He was cast into prison.
When Christ
heard of it he “ departed from that country/'’ After
wards he returned, and heard that John had been be
headed, and he again departed from that country.
There is no possible relation between the miraculous
and the moral. The miracles of the Middle Ages
are the children of superstition. In the Middle Ages
men told every thing but the truth, and believed every
thing but the facts. The Middle Ages—a trinity of
ignorance, mendacity and insanity! There is one thing
about humanity. You see the faults of others but not
your own. A Catholic in India sees a Hindoo bowing
before an idol, and thinks it absurd. Why does he
not get him a plaster-of-paris Virgin, and some beads
and holy water? Why does the Protestant shut his eyes
when he prays ? The idea is a souvenir of sun-worship,
which is the most natural worship in the world.
Religious dogmas have become absurd, The doctrine
of eternal torment to-day has become absurd—(ap
plause)—low, grovelling, ignorant, barbaric, savage,
devilish—(great applause)—and no gentleman would
preach it. (Applause).
Referring to the demonstrations of science, he
said :
Science, thou art the great magician ! Thou alone
performest the true miracles. Thou alone workest
�14
the real wanders. Fire is thy servant, lightning thy
messenger. The waves obey thee, and thou knowest
the circuits of the wind. Thou art the great philan
thropist. Thou hast freed the slave and civilised the
master. Thou hast taught man to chain, not his
fellow-man, but the forces of Nature—forces that have
no backs to be scarred, no limbs for chains to chill
and eat—forces that never know fatigue, that shed
no tears—forces that have no liearts to break. Thou
gavest man the plough, the reaper, and the loom—
thou hast fed and clothed the world. Thou art the
great physician. Thy touch hath given sight. Thou
hast made the lame to leap, the dumb to speak, and
in the pallid cheek thy hand hath set the rose of
health. “ Thou hast given thy beloved sleep ”—a
sleep that wraps in happy dreams the throbbing
nerves of pain. Thou art the perpetual providence
of man—preserver of life and love. Thou art the
teacher of every virtue, the enemy of every vice.
Thou hast discovered the true basis of morals—the
origin and office of conscience—and hast revealed
the nature and measure of obligation. Thou hast
taught that love is justice in its highest form,
and that even self-love, guided by wisdom, em
braces with loving arms the human race. Thou
hast
SLAIN THE MONSTERS OF THE PAST-
Thou hast discovered the one inspired book. Thou
hast read the records of the rocks, written by wind
and wave, by frost and flame—records that even
priestcraft cannot change—and in thy wondrous scales
thou hast weighed the atoms and the stars. Thou
�15
art the founder of the only true religion. Thou art the
very Christ, the only Savior of mankind! (Applause.)
Continuing, he said :—Theology has always been
in the way of the advance of the human race. There
is this difference between science and theology,__
science is modest and merciful, while theology is ar
rogant and cruel. The hope of science is the perfec
tion of the human race. The hope of theology is the
salvation of a few and the damnation of almost every
body. As I told you in the first place, I believe
in the religion of freedom. 0 Liberty, thou
art the god of my idolatry. Thou art the only
deity that hates the bended knee. (Applause.) In
thy vast and unwalled temple, beneath the roofless
dome, star-gemmed and luminous with suns, thy
worshippers stand erect. They do not bow or cringeor crawl or bend their foreheads to the earth. The
dust hath never borne the impress of their lips. Upon
thy sacred altars mothers do not sacrifice their babes,
nor men their rights. Thou takest naught from man
except the things that good men hate -/the whip, thechain, the dungeon-key. Thou hast no kings, no
popes, no priests to stand between their fellow-men
and thee. Thou hast no monks, no nuns, who, in thename of duty, murder joy. Thou carest not for forms
nor mumbled prayers. At thy sacred shrine hypocrisy
does not bow, fear does not crouch, virtue does not
tremble, superstition'’s feeble tapers do not burn, but
Reason holds aloft her inextinguishable torch, while
on the ever-broadening- brow of science falls the
ever-coming morning of the ever-better day. (G-reai
Applause.)
�INFIDEL DEATH-BEDS
By G. W. FOOTE.
Being a faithful history of the deaths of the most eminent
Freethinkers of all ages, and a triumphant answer to the
lies and misrepresentations of Christian apologists. No pains
have been spared to give the most precise particulars from
original sources, and this work will be a standard one on the
subject. Every Freethinker should have a copy, and keep it
constantly by him.
List of Freethinkers dealt with—
i Frederick the Great Mirabeau
Lord Amberley
Lord Bolingbroke i Gambetta
Robert Owen
Isaac Gendre
i Thomas Paine
Giordano Bruno
Henry Thos. Buckle Gibbon
Shelley
Lord Byron
Goethe
Spinoza
Richard Carlile
Henry Hetherington j D. F. Strauss
John Toland
Professor Clifford
Hobbes
Van ini
' Austin Holyoake
Anthony Collins
Volney
I Victor Hugo
Condorcet
Voltaire
, Hume
Robert Cooper
James Watson
Danton
Littre
Harriet Martineau John Watts
Diderot
, Thomas Woolston
, J. S. Mill
George Eliot
“ Special thanks are clue to Mr. G. W. Foote for his new pamphlet.
The sketches of the various Freethinkers are very readable, and a
double end will be achieved in refuting pious slanderers and reviving
the memories of our dead.’-—National Reformer.
“Mr. Foote's little manual cannot fail to be of great service in re
futing the ancient and silly death-bed argument. . . . We should be
gratified to hear that the little book meets with an extensive sale.”—
Secular Review.
“Mr. Foote is in his element in Infidel Death-Beds, and his care
fully-stated facts about the last hours of well-known unbelievers
ought to be in the hands of every Freethinker.”—- Our Corner.
Price Sixpence.
Superior Edition, on superfine paper, bound in cloth. One Shilling.
Letters B G. Jesus Christ.
to W. FOOTE.
y
SOMETHING
STARTLING
Price
AND UNIQUE.
Fourpence.
Printed and Published by G. W. Foote, at 28 Stonecutter Street, E.C
�
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
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Title
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Myth and miracle : a new lecture
Creator
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Ingersoll, Robert Green [1833-1899]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 15 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Part of the NSS pamphlet collection. Reprinted from the Boston Investigator. Publisher's advertisements on back cover. No. 53a in Stein checklist.
Publisher
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Progressive Publishing Co.
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Mythology
Miracles
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Miracles
Mythology
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NEW TESTAMENT “MIRACLES,”
AND
MODERN “MIRACLES.”
THE COMPARATIVE AMOUNT OF EVIDENCE FOR EACH.
THE NATURE OF BOTH.
TESTIMONY OF A HUNDRED WITNESSES.
AN ESSAY,
READ BEFORE THE MIDDLE AND SENIOR CLASSES IN CAMBRIDGE
DIVINITY SCHOOL,
BY
J.
“ Ye
H. FOWLER.
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
BOSTON:
PUBLISHED BY BELA MARSH, 15 FRANKLIN STREET.
NEW YORK : PARTRIDGE & BRITTAN, 300 BROADWAY.
PHILADELPHIA : B. PEBCIVAL, 89 SOUTH SIXTH ST.
18 54.
�Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by
J. n. FOWLER,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
STEREOTYPED BY
HOBART & ROBBINS,
NEW ENGLAND Ti'rE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDERY,
BOSTON.
I
�■
�WITNESSES TO MODERN MIRACLES.
[See Testimony.]
CASE I.
No. 1.
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No. 2.
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No. 3.
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No. 4.
«.
“
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No. 5.
“
Z. P. Kibbee, M. D.
Rufus Elmer.
Nelson Elmer.
Theodore M. Smith.
George E. Haskell.
Z. Rogers.
Moses Babcock.
W. S. Courtney.
Milo A. Townsend.
William McDonald.
Mrs. John Lord.
Mrs. R. Elmer.
Mrs. S. A. Richie.
Miss Mary M. Harris.
F. C. Andreu.
Marshall Elmer.
William Bryant.
B. K. Bliss.
William Edwards.
David A. Wells.
S. F. Cheney.
Rev. Herman Snow.
case n.
No. 1. B. S. Benson.
“ W. W. Laning.
No. 2. Joseph Brydle.
CASE III.
No. 2.
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Harvey Chase.
Marcus C. Wilcox.
Mrs. M. C. Wilcox.
Emery S. Scott.
Ellis Cook.
Benj. Ray.
Meltiah Knowlton
Daniel Knowlton.
CASE IV.
No. 1. J. F. Lanning.
No. 2. Goorge R. Raymond.
case v.
No. 1. Joseph R. Buchanan.
No. 2. J. B. Wolf.
CASE VI.
No. 1. Dr. Smith.
No. 2. Mr. Waters.
CASE VII.
No. 1.
No. 2.
No. 3.
No. 4.
No. 5.
“
"
“
No. 6.
D. W. Scott.
H. H. Hunt.
Cyrus Tyrrell.
Sarah Herron.
S. C. Hewitt.
John M. Spear.
Philander Shaw.
Seth Hunt.
Benj. A. Rhodes.
No. 7.
“
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No. 8.
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Silas Mosman.
M. S. Pease.
George Staples.
Eliza C. Leeds.
Joseph Haight.
William Dibble.
Charles C. York.
Pamelia A. Nichols.
William Nichols.
Mrs. Harriet Nelson.
CASE VIII.
No. 1. William Lloyd Garrison.
No. 2. Adin Ballou.
No. 3. William Bugbee.
CASE IX.
No. 1. Mrs. D. C. Kendall.
“ Mary E. Kendall.
No. 2. B. McFarland.
No. 3. Rev. D. F. Goddard.
No. 4. D. Hasteller.
“ A. P. Pierce.
“ II. F. Partridge.
“ Lewis Dugdale.
“ Charles C. Stillman.
No. 5. Mary H. Ide.
“ Amos Cummings.
“ George Clapp.
“ Miss Susan Bagley.
No. 6. E. P. Fowler.
“ John Gray.
“ John F. Gray, M. D.
“ S. T. Fowler.
“ F. F. Cory.
“ Mrs. Charlotte F. Wells.
“ Robert T. Shannon.
“ Daniel Minthorn.
“ Charles Partridge.
“ William J. Baner.
“ Mrs. Almira L. Fowler.
“ Mrs. S. A. Partridge.
“ Almon Roff.
“ Ward Cheney.
“ R. T. Hallock, M. D.
“ Mrs. Martha H. F. Baner.
“ J. T. Warner, M. D.
« A. G. Hull, M. D.
“ Samuel T. Fowler.
“ Prof. Bush.
case x.
No. 1. George T. Dexter, M. D.
No. 2. Judge Edmonds.
No. 3. Governor Tallmadge.
CASE XI.
A. E. Newton.
S. J. Newton.
J. H. Fowler.
�WITNESSES FOR NEW TESTAMENT MIRACLES.
Saul of Tarsus (otherwise called Paul).
’ Peter, a fisherman of G alilee.
Luke, Paul’s secretary.
Supposed to be <{ Mark, Peter’s secretary.
Matthew, a tax-gatherer of Jerusalem.
John, a fisherman of Galilee.
1*
�____________________________________________________________________________________
�PREFACE.
It has been customary among all people to divide the facts of
history into two distinct classes; namely, Natural or Profane, and
Miraculous or Sacred. In the former class they have included all
those events which they are able to explain by known principles,
or which have become so common as to excite no surprise. In
the latter they have included all those facts which are remark
ably wonderful, from the fact of their unfrequent occurrence, or of
their not being accounted for by principles already known.
Now, to show that this distinction is purely subjective, and has
no ground in the facts themselves, it is only necessary to state
that no two persons draw the line through the same points ; and
each individual is constantly changing the line of division, as his
own experience and knowledge of the powers of nature increase.
The line has been drawn through every possible point, and is
found to apply nowhere. Hence, at the present day, many have
rejected it altogether.
Scientific men reject it, not because they are able to explain all
¿he facts of history on scientific principles which they already
know; but, because they have implicit confidence in what they call
the “ immutable laws of naturef they reject all the evidence
for that class of facts which seemingly contradict, or cannot be ex
plained by, laws already known; presuming that there are no
higher laws in God’s universe. And when they have rejected one
whole class of facts, they have no need of the line of distinction.
To show the stupidity of this course, we need only refer to their
means of judging the powers of nature. They judge these powers,
or laws, by the phenomena produced. They accept the phenomena
�4
on the direct evidence of their own senses, and on the testimony
of others as to the evidence of their senses. If sufficient evidence
to establish any class of phenomena is thus presented, they at once
conclude that there are powers in nature capable of producing
such phenomena; they then name those powers, and designate the
class of phenomena by appropriate terms.
Now, sjiould they pursue this course, of testing the powers of
nature by the facts produced, to a certain extent, and then ex
clude or reject, at once, all her facts, simply on the ground of
nature’s inability to produce them, would they not act foolishly,
and most unscientifically ?
How do they know that nature is able to produce any class of
facts ? By the facts themselves. Hence, should they reject the
facts beforehand, on the ground of nature’s inability to produce
them, they would certainly be stupid. But they do this very
thing. They reject a whole class of facts which appear in all
history as well substantiated — and often better — as many other
facts which they receive with implicit confidence; facts which are
testified to, not orfly by all history, but by the most reliable wit
nesses of our own time. They reject these facts, not for the want
of testimony in their favor, but because they presume, beforehand,
that nature has no power to produce them. Thus they reverse
the true order of scientific inquiry, which is, first to substantiate
the facts; which being done, it must be taken for granted that
there is somewhere in nature a power adequate to their pro
duction.
The course pursued by religionists is generally more inconsistent
than the above. They select, out of the “ miracles ” of a past age,
such as favor their own peculiar systems of religion, and reject
all others, though those rejected rest on testimony equally
reliable with that which substantiates those received. After they
have once accepted ‘ ‘ miracles ’ ’ enough to prove to their own
minds the divine origin of their peculiar system of religion, they
then take the course of the scientifics, and deny the possibility of
similar facts occurring in their own age, however much testimony
may be produced in their favor. With them,
“ ’T is distance lends enchantment to the view.”
�Another class, among whom are nearly all the “ spiritualists ”
of the present day, take what appears to me the only truly scien
tific and religious ground ; namely, we can judge of the powers of
nature — or, rather, of the ability of Deity to operate in nature —
only by what nature does, just as we judge the powers of man
by what man does ; hence, whenever any fact or phenomenon of
nature is clearly established by reliable testimony, we arg bound
to believe that nature has performed it, and therefore has the
ability to do it, and may do it, again, under similar circumstances.
This, we say, is more scientific than either to reject the fact, or
refer it to supernatural and miraculous agency.
Hence, while we receive all the well-attested facts of the
present age, and of all past ages, we do not accept the eccle
siastical theory of 11 miracles " to account for any of them.
We say, if spirits who have left the earthly body produce
sounds, or move physical objects, or manifest themselves in any
way, they do it just as much in harmony with the principles of
nature, as they did the ordinary acts while in the earthly body.
They are no more supernatural now than while living on earth ;
and their action is no more “miraculous.” They are the same
identical beings ; though some of them probably have arisen to
higher degrees of goodness and truth, many remain on nearly the
same plane, and some may, for a time, even sink to a lower plane.
Still, we believe all will progress to higher degrees of life. We
judge of their character as we judge of persons on earth, by the
things which they do. And we deny that any man, whether in the
church or out, can judge them by any other standard. We do not
admit the high or low character of the manifestations as evidence
either for or against the spiritual theory, because we say no man
can know thé character of spirits unless he admit the possibility of
*
theii communicating. If he deny that spirits communicate, he
has no right to object on the ground of the '■'•low character'"
of the communications ; for he has no possible means of judging
what the character of spirits is. It is all assumption with him, and
assumption is worth nothing against fact. If he admit that spirits
ever have communicated, and afforded us an opportunity of judg
ing their character, then we are perfectly agreed. For we do
not. more than he, presume that everything purporting to
�6
be done by spirits is really done by them. Nor do I know of any
“spiritualist” who takes it for granted that all the communica
tions signed by “ great names ” are given by the persons whose
names they bear. Though I believe very many are still disposed
to put too much confidence in these names, especially when they
are given through their own hand, I think they are as much influ
enced to do this by their own vanity, as the spirits are induced to
assume them by the same cause.
Some mediums seem to think it a greater honor to be the
amanuenses of Matthew, or Luther, or Baeon, oi’ Franklin, or
Webster, than of one of their own humble friends: and some per
sons who ask for communications seem to think they can derive
power by being noticed by these same persons, and call for them
in preference to their dearest friends. They seldom fail to get
what they most desire ; for it appears there are spirits as ready to
deceive and play the fool, as mortals are ready to be deceived and
befool themselves.
However, we do not expect all men to be entirely free from
folly in this world, nor immediately after going to the next. We
did not at first presume that spirits, or anything else, caused the
phenomena. We, at first, denied the facts themselves, and
demanded proof • this we have received, sufficient to compel our
assent to them. Next we sought, from the character of the facts
themselves, to ascertain their cause. The same cause that produced
them always affirmed itself to be spirits. But we did not believe
this; we proved them, and, by an overwhelming amount of evidence,
became convinced that they are what they have from the first pur
ported to be.
It is a principle of philosophy, which cannot be neglected in any
truly scientific inquiry, that the cause assigned to any class
of phenomena must be adequate to the production of every
individual phenomenon in that class.
Now, it is certain that every other theory which has been
manufactured to account for these modern “spirit manifestations ”
is insufficient to account for very many of the phenomena; and
the authors of those theories are obliged to deny many facts for
which the testimony is equally good with that for the facts they
receive. The Grimes school of Mesmerists, Biologists, Psychol
�7
ogists, Humbugs and Eclipse-makers, not only deny many of the
best-attested facts, but they declare, boldly, that thousands of un
suspected men, women, children, and even infants (for there are
many such mediums), are capable of practising deceptions which
they, after an experience of twenty years in the art, cannot accom
plish. The Rogers school of Od-forces also deny the fact of an
independent directing intelligence, and many other established
facts. But they do this in such an od way, that no one can tell
what they are driving at.
The Beecher school of Devilites arc also compelled to ignore
all the good connected with the phenomena.
Lastly, Dods — [I know not whether fe has yet made a single
disciple, though he has “ known all about this matter for twenty
years ” !] •— Dods, who, as we all know, is more thorough in his in
vestigations, knows more about the subject, and states himself
more candidly and modestly, than anybody else,—even Dods
denies all these well-known facts, which his Back-Brain-Instinct
theory cannot account for.
But the Spiritual theory, which can stand all tests, is not only
adequate to account for all the phenomena, but it gathers
strength from every principle assumed in all the other theories;
from Mesmerism, Od, Back-Brain, and the Devil.
��INTRODUCTION.
From the jeering manner in which every allusion to
the subject has been repulsed, even while we have been
gravely considering the time-honored records of similar
phenomena, I am induced to apologize for making it the
subject of my present essay, and inviting your serious
attention to it for the space of a whole hour.
I assure you I would not make this attempt, had I not,
after devoting to it a considerable portion of my time for
the last four years, and having personally witnessed many
of the phenomena, become fully satisfied as to their truth
and importance.
Even this conviction would not be sufficient induce
ment for me to bring the subject before you in this
manner, were I not fully persuaded that my sense of
duty to the cause were greater than your combined re
pulsion.
Whether it be, or be not, a fit subject for the serious
consideration of a “ divinity class,” it will soon make an
irresistible demand upon every theologian and religious
teacher.
It is already claiming the attention of all classes of
people, in every part of the civilized world, as no other
subject ever did. It is making the most alarming inroads
upon all the creeds and churches of Christendom. It is
commencing a revolution in the intellectual, moral, re2
�10
ligious and social world, to which history furnishes no
parallel.
It does not depend merely upon human agency for its
success; but, spite of all opposition, it goeth where it
listeth, and people of every class, and in every place, are
compelled to hear the sound thereof, though they may
not be able to tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth.
No family circle is too private for it. The sceptical
father and prudent mother may forbid their sons and
daughters witnessing the manifestations at their neighbors’
houses, but soon the most wonderful and convincing phe
nomena appear in their own, and both father and mother
arc eager to hear “what the spirits wish to communicate
to them.” No church is too sacred for their presence.
Ministers pronounce it “the work of the devil,” and,
from the pulpit, warn their congregation against it; but,
before the sermon is ended, the well-known but unsolic
ited sound is heard in various parts of the house ; the
most faithful church-members become mediums, the
deacons are entranced, and soon minister and all become
a congregation of “spiritualists.”
Though these modern “spirit-manifestations” com
menced but five years since, and, at first, only attracted
the attention of two little girls by some slight tappings
in their presence, there are now from twenty to thirty
modes of manifestation, some of them of the most astound
ing character.
It has been stated that there are a hundred thousand
mediums, and two and a half millions of believers, in this
country alone, to say nothing of the many thousands in
Europe.
The attention of the British Parliament has been called
to it; the French Academy of Science has long been
�considering it; and a memorial, signed by thirteen thou
sand persons, has been presented to the Congress of the
United States, asking for a special committee to consider
the subject.
There are in the United States some twenty newspa
pers and periodicals principally devoted to it, and upwards
of one hundred different publications on the subject.
“It numbers among its advocates many men of the
highest standing and talent, in every profession and sphere.
Doctors, lawyers, clergymen, a Protestant bishop, pro
fessors, and a reverend president of a college, foreign
ambassadors and ex-members of the national senate.”
The rapid progress of belief in the reality of the phe
nomena does not depend so much upon the testimony of
others, however reliable, as upon the personal observation
and experience which probably every believer has had.
Thousands of living witnesses testify, on the very day of
their occurrence, that they have seen, felt and heard the
phenomena, and are compelled to believe in their reality,
spite of their obstinate prejudices against them.
There is no question about the authenticity of the tes
timony, the character and competency of those who testify,
or the time and place. The names of all the parties, and
all the circumstances of the events, are given, and the
witnesses are now before you, ready to be questioned ;
none of which things can be said of the New Testament
“ miracles.”
Besides my own living testimony, being an eye-wit
ness, I hold in my hands the direct, unequivocal and
most reliable testimony of men in your very midst, to the
number of ten to one, that events precisely similar to
those recorded in the New Testament have, within the
last five years, occurred in their presence. And I am
�12
able now, in three days, not only to bring personally before
you this superior number of witnesses, but, with your
consent, to make every one of you a witness that such
facts do really occur.
THE COMPARATIVE AMOUNT OF EVIDENCE.
The testimony which I have collected, though not a
tithe of what has come under my observation, and, in
many respects, — owing principally to the necessity for
brevity, — not so complete and convincing as much which
I have rejected, is still sufficient to establish the facts, as
far as human testimony can do it. The facts must either
be admitted, or the testimony of the human senses, how
ever multiplied, pronounced unreliable. If the latter
alternative be accepted, then, of course, it applies as well
to past ages as to the present, and the New Testament
testimony is worth nothing. So all a priori objections
to the occurrence of any fact, or class of facts, at the
present day, would apply with equal force to those of
any past age. And all arguments from the wants of
mankind, previous prophecies, and arguments of what
ever kind which have been made to render the New
Testament accounts probable, will apply with equal force
to those of the present day; so that, aside from the
amount of testimony, the ancient “miracles” have no
advantage.
Let us, then, compare the testimony in favor of each.
To facilitate this, we will classify the so-called miracles
of the New Testament in the following manner :
1st. The counteraction of the law of gravitation in the
movement of physical objects ; the rolling away the stone
at the door of the sepulchre of Christ, the opening of
the prison-doors to Peter, Christ walking on the water, etc.
�13
2d. Luminous appearances accompanying the manifest
ations of physical power, and the seeing of spirits; as in
the case of Peter’s release from prison, the transfigura
tion of Christ on the mount, the conversion of Paul on
the day of Pentecost.
3d. Spirits are seen, recognized and conversed with ;
as, Moses and Elias, Christ after his death, and others.
4th. Voices are heard as at Paul’s conversion, at the
baptism of Christ, etc.
5th. Speaking in unknown tongues.
6th. Jesus is taught to read.
7th. A remarkable healing power is exhibited.
8th. Cursing the fig-tree.
9th. Turning water into wine.
10th. Feeding a multitude on less than nothing.
11th. Raising a person from the dead.
12th. Child born with no natural father.
These twelve classes, I believe, comprise all the pre
tended miracles of the New Testament.
We will first present our testimony to facts precisely
similar to, or involving the same principles as, those of
the first seven classes, and then consider the other five
particular ones. The reader should now turn to the testi
mony, and read the cases as they are referred to.
*
2
�14
CLASS I.
We have produced, as will be seen by turning to the
testimony, in case I., twenty-three witnesses; in case II.,
two ; in case III., one ; case V., one ; case VIII., two ;
case X., eleven; making in all forty witnesses, who, in the
most unequivocal manner, testify to cases precisely simi
lar to those “miracles” of the New Testament comingunder the first class. These witnesses are many of them
well known as men of the first character and standing in
community; men who would be the least liable to be
deceived in matters of this kind. They state what they
have seen. They state the time, place and circumstances,
and then appeal to others ; and are now ready to be con
fronted upon the subject.
What, now, is the New Testament testimony ? The
writer of Matthew’s gospel says, “The angel of the Lord
(if he did not mean a spirit, what did he mean ?) descended
from heaven and rolled back the stone,” Matt. 18 : 2.
The writer of Mark (16 : 4) says, “And when they looked
they saw that the stone was rolled away.” The writer
of Luke (24: 2) says, “They found the stone rolled
away.” So, according to the two last, they did not see
the thing done. The first seems to have taken it for
granted, or, perchance, “ he got a communication,” that
a spirit did it. Now, we will suppose (even the doctors
admit its uncertainty) that Matthew — Matthew some
body— gave this testimony. Then, as the best critics
say, Paul told his secretary Luke the story, and he wrote
the second statement. And Peter (who, on one occasion,
certainly lied) told Mark somebody, and he gave the
third statement. So much for the New Testament testi
mony to this fact.
�15
The other instance, coming under class first, recorded
in the gospels, is Jesus walking on the sea, Matt. 14 :
25, 26 ; Mark 6 : 48—50 ; John 6 : 19—21. Accord
ing to the two, first, when the disciples saw Jesus walking
on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a SPIRIT.”
How could they have said this, had they not believed
spirits could manifest themselves to mortals ? The next
case is recorded by the writer of Acts (supposed to be
that same Luke above referred to), though it is not likely
he saw it, Acts 5 : 19, 20. But the angel of the Lord
(another spirit,—who else could it be ?) by night opened
the prison doors and brought them forth, and said, “ Go,
stand up in the temple, and speak all the words of this life,”
—very like what the spirits of the present day often say.
Another case is recorded in chapter 12 : 1—11. I would
ask the hearer to turn to this and read it, and, if possible,
make anything out of it but a spirit-manifestation. Trans
late it into modern language, and see if it is not just
like some things which now take place, — the luminous
appearance, the keepers entranced and Peter likewise
(see 11th verse), the gates and doors opened, etc.
It could be none other than a spirit (here called angel
of the Lord}. And this fact will explain what is meant
by angel of the Lord in the other cases. The last case,
Acts 17 : 26, — “And suddenly there was a great earth
quake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken;
and immediately all the doors were opened, and every
one’s bands were loosed.” This “ manifestation ” should
be compared with case II., number one. I think these
comprise all the phenomena, related in the New Testa
ment, which come under the first class.
We have, then, for these, the testimony of only four
persons, — and who doubts them ? But we have given the
�16
testimony of ten times this number of personal witnesses,
— who can doubt them ? I insist upon this case, and chal
lenge any person to show wherein any one of our forty
witnesses’ testimony is not as good, to say the least, as
that of any one of the four New Testament witnesses.
Till this is done, and our witnesses are reduced to less
than four, let no man, who pretends to believe the New
Testament accounts, be so inconsistent as to deny that
similar facts now occur.
z
Having made so strong a case respecting this first class,
and, as we very justly conclude, convinced every believer
in the New Testament “miracles” that the modern
“miracles” are also true, we shall not be expected to
produce so much testimony in favor of the facts of the
following classes, neither shall we be so particular in re
gard to the New Testament statements.
CLASS II.
We have, in cases I., II. and X., the testimony of ten to
facts coming under this class. Suppose, then, we have in
the New Testament five witnesses equally good, who testify
to precisely similar luminous appearances in cases of
spirit-manifestation which then occurred, — and certainly
that was a spirit-manifestation when Moses and Elias,
who had been so long in the spirit-world, appeared and
talked with Christ, — we have then produced two wit
nesses for the modern, to one for the New Testament
manifestations of this class.
CLASS ni.---- SPIRITS SEEN, ETC.
We have in cases II., III., IV. and X., the testimony
of five. I think the New Testament does not produce more
�17
than this number of witnesses to this class of facts. Truly,
it says the spirit of Christ (and if Christ was not then a
spirit, how could he get into the room when “the doors
were shut ” ?) appeared to twelve, and then to five thou
sand ; but who those were it does not say, nor does any
one of them give his testimony. Such witnesses we could
find in abundance; but we do not count any one who has
not given his own personal signature, or authorized us to
give it. This case, then, stands as good in favor of mod
ern, as New Testament “miracles.”
CLASS IV.---- VOICES HEARD.
In cases IV. and X., we have the testimony of three,
though we might have given many more; but the New
Testament testimony is so vague and equivocal upon this
point that we deem these cases sufficient to balance them.
Four cases occur in the New Testament records,—
Matt. 3:17; 17: 5; John 12: 28; Acts 9: 7. In regard
to the first, Mark (1: 10, 11) agrees with Matthew, and
says he (John or Jesus) saw the spirit descending, etc.
Luke does not contradict this. John says nothing about
the voice, but implies that only John saw the spirit
descend : “ and he (John) bare record that this is the Son
of God.” — See John 1 : 33—35. It would appear, by
comparing John 1: 34 with the others above referred to,
that, if anything of this kind did occur, — and we are not
disposed to doubt it, — when John saw the spirit descend
upon Christ, he said, “ This is the beloved Son of God”
or something like this. For he says (John 1: 34), “And
I saw (the spirit) and bore record that this is the Son of
God.” If the multitudes saw and heard all this, and the
voice from heaven, as is commonly supposed, what need
�18
would there be of John “ bearing record,” and why were
they not all at once converted to a belief in Christ ?
The second case of the voice from the cloud, on the
mount, is pretty well substantiated by the three first
gospels, and in 2 Peter 3 : 17 ; but, it appears by Luke
9 : 32, and Matt. 17 : 7, that the disciples were in a
trance, or what we should call 11 under spiritual influence.”
Now, to such cases we could bring the testimony of
hundreds.
The next case (John 12 : 28) seems to have been an
audible voice heard by the people who stood by. The
other case, in Acts 9 : 7, is contradicted in chapter 22,
verse 9.
CLASS V. — SPEAKING IN UNKNOWN TONGUES.
We have, in cases V., VIII. and X., the testimony of
nineteen, that persons under the modern spiritual influence
do speak in tongues wholly unknown to them. This tes
timony is as direct and explicit as testimony can be.
There is no statement, I think, in either of the four
gospels, that any one did speak with tongues, though
Christ is made to promise it to those who believe; hence
we may infer that some did so speak. In Acts 2, an
account is given, at considerable length, of speaking with
unknown tongues. I will translate this account into the
language of modern spiritualists, to show its close resem
blance to what now happens; and I would ask any person
to show wherein I change a single idea or fact. When
the day for the great festival of the Jews, called the
Pentecost, arrived, all disciples of Jesus (spiritualists)
met in one place, and, being in perfect harmony, or,
“forming an harmonious circle,” all at once they heard
a sound over their heads, apparently from the clouds, re-
�19
sembling a very violent blast of wind, which filled the
whole house in which they had their “ sitting.” And there
appeared to them a divided flame, resembling fire, resting
upon each one in the circle; and they were all under the
spiritual influence, and began to speak in other languages
as the “spirit” influenced them, or enabled them to
speak. At that time there were residing in Jerusalem
Jews and religious men from all nations, who had come
to this festival; so, when this manifestation was known
among them, a large number came in to witness it, and
were completely confounded, for every man heard these
ignorant spiritualists speak in his own language. And
they all were greatly astonished, for they (the learned
priests of all religions) could not account for it that these
Galileans should speak in so many foreign languages.
And they asked one another what it meant; and some
said, “ These men are drunk,”—a reply nearly as stupid
as some religious men now make, when asked what these
same manifestations mean. But one of the twelve (see
verse 14) who composed the circle replied to them very
eloquently (probably under the influence). He took them
on their own ground, quoted from their own scripture,
showing that the thing had been spoken of a long time
before, and that it should continue through all time (see
verses 16 to 18). “ Your sons and your daughters shall
prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and
your old men shall dream dreams. And I will show
wonders in the heavens above, and signs in the earth
beneath ; blood and fire and vapor of smoke.” (These
very things are now seen.) “Repent and receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit (the spiritual influence); for the
PROMISE IS UNTO YOU, AND TO YOUR CHILDREN, AND TO ALL
�20
THAT ARE AFAR OFF, EVEN AS MANY AS THE LORD YOUR GOD
SHALL CALL.”
The promise of Christ, in Mark 16 : 16,17, is so like
this, that we will here quote it. “ He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not
shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that
believe ; in my name shall they cast out devils (evil spirits);
they shall speak with new tongues ; they shall take up
serpents, and, if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not
hurt them ; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they
shall recover.”
So, then, all “ believers ” are spiritual
ists ; nay, more, they are mediums.
Speaking in unknown languages is several times referred
to in the writings of Paul. Hence we have the direct
testimony of two in the New Testament to this class of
phenomena, for which we have adduced the testimony of
nineteen.
CLASS VI.---- TEACHING TO READ.
For facts under this head, we furnish the testimony of
four witnesses,— cases V., VI. and X. John 7 : 15,1
believe, is the only statement in the New Testament of
any fact of this kind, — and yet who doubts that Jesus
was learned spiritually ?
CLASS VII.---- HEALING.
To facts of this kind we have given, in case VII., the
testimony of seventeen witnesses, who state all the par
ticulars, and give the names of the persons healed. We
have also selected some of the most malignant cases of
almost every kind of disease ; and now we challenge any
believer in the New Testament miracles of this and the
�21
six previous classes to show wherein we have not pro
duced a far superior amount of evidence that the same
“ miracles ” are wrought now.
Whereas, no one of the six New Testament witnesses
would be allowed in our courts, — for there is no certainty
about the authenticity of either of them, or the time of
their testifying, — at least thirty of our witnesses would
be allowed, and their testimony accepted, in any court in
the United States; for we not only know as to their per
sonal identity, the time, and all the circumstances of the
events to which they testify, but we could bring into
court the identical living witnesses, and with them a
thousand more from every large city in the United States.
And not only this, but we can produce witnesses on the
spot, and make the judges themselves testify to the facts,
which they shall be made to witness with their own eyes,
ears and hands.
3
V
�22
As to the five remaining cases, it no more follows that we should
believe them because we accept other accounts in the same book,
than that we should believe all the reports of modern spiritualists
because we know many of them to be true; or that we should
accept all which any historian may record, because we receive his
testimony as to some things. A narrator may be truthful and
wise in many things; and, in those, impartially relate the facts.
But his opinions, his zeal, or want of knowledge in respect to
other things, may wholly disqualify him to judge truly concern
ing them.
Many spiritualists, at the present day, being very zealous to
advance the cause, sometimes think they see what they do not;
nnd, from a small beginning, often get up a marvellous story, and
this, too, in perfect sincerity.
So the early Christians did; hence it is reasonable to suppose
the writers of the gospel histories, whoever they were, might be
influenced in the same manner. But it is said these writings are
an exception; their authors are inspired, and could not err. How
do we know this? The writers themselves nowhere claim it;
they do not even tell us who they are. Tradition is the only
authority we have for their inspiration; and that tradition came
through the Catholic church, else it originated since the Reforma
tion, and is worth nothing.
But the facts themselves contradict the idea of infallible inspir
ation ; for we find that in many places they make wrong assertions,
reason falsely, and positively contradict each other.
In giving the genealogies of Christ from Joseph to David,
Matthew gives twenty-eight, Luke forty-three generations. Mat
thew says the father of Jesus was the son of Jacob, Luke says he
was the son of Heli; —thus they differ, nor do they again agree
till they come to David.
The object in giving this genealogy evidently was to prove that
Jesus was the son of David. But what a foolish course, by trac
ing his descent through Joseph, who, according to both these
writers, was no more the father of Jesus than of John the Bap
tist ! It is said this discrepancy and blunder is of no consequence.
�23
This reply implies one of two things. These authors were in
spired to write on a subject 11 of no consequence,” and to make a
very stupid blunder, or they were not inspired at all. Accept
either alternative, and their writings are worth no more than those
of others. This one error is sufficient to overthrow every theory
of infallible inspiration.
But we will refer to a few of the many others. Matt. 1: 22,
23 is a very false application of Isaiah 17: 14, as will be readily
seen by reading the context. Such errors are very frequent with
these writers, as one cannot fail to see, by reading the chapters
of the Old Testament whence they are taken.
Again, Matt. 2 : 16, the story of Herod slaying all the male
children, through fear of an infant, is not only not mentioned in
any other history, and plainly contradicted by these writers them
selves, in the fact that John, then about six months old, was not
slain, but it is absurd in itself.
Now, pass to the death of Jesus. John says the trial and con
demnation took place before the Passover (17 : 28, 39: 19 : 14,
31). The other three make it come after the Passover (Matt.
26 : 17 ; Mark 14 : 12; Luke 22 : 7—15). Mark says he was
crucified at the third hour (15: 25) ; John, at the sixth hour (19:
14). They differ, too, in giving the superscription on the cross;
also, concerning the resurrection, who came to the sepulchre, the
time of their coming, whom they saw there, the number of an
gels (spirits), and the position in which they first saw them.
It is common among many to pass over these as trifling errors:
but, if these incidents are worth relating at all, they are worth
relating truly, and the errors should guard us against greater ones
contained in these writings.
But, suppose these five cases did occur as they are related,— so
far from disproving the modern “ spirit manifestations,” they cor
roborate them. They prove, at least, the possibility of spirit
intercourse.
In case XII. (the birth of Jesus) are given several accounts of
spirit manifestations,— spirits are seen, conversed with, and the
communications are reported (Matt. 1; 20, 21; 2 : 19, 20; Luke
1: 11—20, 26—32; 2: 9—14). The modern phenomena, being
�24
proved, prepare the way for belief in these eases; but they do
not furnish any evidence that either of these particular cases did
then occur. To prove this, would require testimony of the same
character and amount as to prove a similar fact at the present day.
CLASS VIII.—CURSING A FIG-TREE.
One can scarcely tell which is the more ridiculous, the act
itself, or the telling of the story as a fact in the history of that
meek and lowly person, Jesus. And yet it is reported, with all
the gravity of “ inspired penmen” in the two first gospels !! !
Matt. 21: 19,—££ And when he saw a fig-tree in the way, he
came to it, and, finding nothing thereon, but leaves only, he said
to it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforth forever. And pres
ently the fig-tree withered away ! ! And when the disciples saw
it they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig-tree withered
away.’' Mark 11: 20, 21,— ££And the next morning, when
they passed by, they saw the fig-tree dried up from the roots !!
And Peter calling to remembrance, saith unto him, 11 Master,
behold, the fig-tree which thou cursedst is withered
away”! !! Jesus, who said, bless, and curse not, is here
made so foolish at to curse a poor fig-tree, because he was
disappointed in not finding figs thereon ! ! ! 0 shame ! ye who can
not better understand your Master than to think to do him service
by telling such foolish stories about him ! And ye who think it
wrong to doubt these stories, which would disgrace a loafer at the
present day ; think ye that one cannot truly appreciate the char
acter of Jesus unless he makes himself think he believes this
silly thing which somebody told about him ? It reminds us of
the ten thousand other stories which were told of him and im
plicitly believed by his early disciples. (See the £ 1 Apocryphal
New Testament.”) We will give a specimen of these. (First gos
pel of Thomas, concerning the infancy of Jesus * 19 : 16—21.)
££ Again, on another day, the Lord Jesus was with some boys
by a river, and they drew water out of the river by little chan
nels, and made little fish-pools. But the Lord Jesus made
* This Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ was believed by the Gnostics, a
sect of Christians, in the second century ; and several of the fathers, Eusebius,
Athanasius, Epiplianius, Chrysostom, and others, quoted from it.
�25
twelve sparrows, and placed them about his pool, on each side
three. Now, it was the Sabbath-day ; and the son of Hanani, a
Jew, came by, and, seeing them making these things, said, Do
ye thus make figures of clay on the Sabbath ? And, running to
them, he broke down their fish-pools. But when the Lord Jesus
had clapped his hands over the sparrows which he had made, they
fled away chirping ! At length the son of Hanani coming to the
fish-pool of Jesus to destroy it, the water vanished away, and the
Lord Jesus said to him, In like manner as this water has
vanished, so shall thy life vanish; and presently the boy died.”
Second gospel according to Thomas, 2: 1, 3,—“ Moreover,
the son of Anna he scribe was standing there with Joseph, and,
taking a bough ol a willow, scattered the waters which Jesus had
gathered into lakes. But the boy Jesus, seeing what he had
done, became angry, and said unto him, Thou fool, what harm
x did the lakes unto thee, that thou shouldst scatter the water ?
Behold now, thou slialt wither as a tree, and shalt bring forth
neither leaves, nor branches, nor fruit. And immediately he
became withered all over ! ”
But some will say this miracle of cursing the fig-tree was per
formed that the disciples might believe ; that the following verses
prove this, Matthew 21: 21,—“Jesus answered and said unto
them, Verily, I say unto you, if ye have faith, and doubt not, ye
shall not only do what is done unto the fig-tree, but also, if ye shall
say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and cast into the sea ;
it shall be done.” —Wonder if any of the disciples ever believed
this ! How would one of the modern disciples, who has not faith
enough to move a table, and does not believe any one can. however
great his faith,— how would such a disciple make up liis mouth to
say to a mountain, “Be thou removed and cast into the sea."
It appears, then, that Jesus did not succeed in this effort to in
crease the disciples’ faith, if this were his object, by cursing the
fig-tree.
People can talk about faith; but, test their faith by requesting
them to put it in practice, or to believe what another has really
done in their own age, near home, and they are found as sceptical
as the boldest atheist,— frequently more so.
*
3
�26
CLASS IX. — TURNING WATER INTO WINE.
This is frequently done at the present day, though we believe
most men prefer taking the wine clear. We do not mean by this
remark any disrespect for Jesus; we say it for all wine-makers,
and for them in the true spirit of wine, which is anything but
stupid gravity. If any believe Jesus to belong to the class of
wine-makers which they would not be among, we may offend them •
but. foi ourselves, we do not believe it, and we will here give the
reasons.
1st. We think the people at the wedding had already drunk
wine enough, having drained all their bottles; and for Jesus to
make six water-pots full more (at least thirty gallons) would
border on extravagance, if not intemperance.
2d. The only account of this is given in John 2 : 1—10, which
account is rendered impossible by circumstances related in the other
three gospels. Compare Matt. 3: 16, 17; 4 : 1—13 ; Mark 1:
10—13; Luke 4 : 12. John 2 : 1, “And the third day there was
a marriage in Cana of Galilee.” By the previous chapter, verses
28, 29 and 43, it is evident that this was the third day after the
baptism of Jesus by John. By the above references to the other
three gospels, it will be seen that 11 immediately (after the bap
tism) the spirit driveth him into the wilderness, and he was there
in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan, and was with wild
beasts, and the angels (spirits) ministered unto him,” which clearly
proves an alibi by three witnesses; therefore, the testimony of
John is good for nothing.
It will be observed that I reject the miracle wholly on the
ground of evidence, there being a decided balance against it; one
witness testifying that, in a certain place, on a certain time, Jesus
performed a certain act, while three witnesses testify that Jesus
was not there within forty days of that time, — that he was off in
the wilderness with the devil.
As to the fact of water being changed into wine, or something
resembling it, I think it could be easily explained by spirit agency.
I will briefly state two facts involving the same principles.
1st. By request of spirits, distilled water was hermetically
�27
sealed in a glass bottle. In this condition it twice changed its
color; then, being analyzed, was found to contain several mineral
substances of medicinal qualities.
2d. A lady medium being sick, by the request of spirits, put
several empty bottles into a room, and, while no person could enter,
these were taken off the mantel, placed in the centre of the floor,
and filled with medicine, which she used according to the direc
tions of the spirits, and was restored to health.
I could produce several witnesses who would testify to the above
facts, though I am sure many who believe, on the testimony of one,
that Jcsus made thirty gallons of wine at a wedding feast, would
ridicule the fact of spirits making a few quarts of medicine for a
poor sick woman, though it were testified to by twenty witnesses.
But I would say to those who may think it “ a sign of mental
defect,” that, while we accept many of the facts of modern spiritu
alism, we reject some of the reports of similar facts ages since,—
and to those spiritualists who think it wisdom to swallow down
all reports of ancient and modern wonders, however great, simply
because they know some to be true, — the fact that a thing is proved
possible by our knowledge of things involving the same principles,
by no means proves that the same thing happened on any partic
ular occasion. We still require testimony, or evidence of some
kind, in proportion to the infrequency of the event, and equal to
all the probabilities against it occurring in the particular case
under consideration.
I would also reply to one class above named, if you consider me
ilin some way mentally defective” for rejecting a part of the
New Testament “miracles,” while I have subsequently believed
some of the modern “ miracles,” can I think your mind perfectly
sound, when you, having previously believed all the New Testa
ment “miracles,” reject all the modern “miracles,” notwithstand
ing the balance of testimony in favor of the latter is as ten to one.
CLASS X.
Feeding “ five thousand men, besides women and children,
On FIVE BARLEY LOAVES AND TWO SMALL FISHES,” and then
taking up “twelve baskets-full of the fragments that re
�28
mained after they did all eat and were filled” ! ! !! ten times
the amount they had before eating ! This is truly a miracle! I
confess it goes far beyond anything related by modern spiritualists.
Nothing like it has occurred in these times, nor can I believe
anything like it will occur. We have four accounts of it given
in the New Testament, as we suppose, by four different persons,
though we do not know that either of these persons were present
on the occasion, or how they got their information, oi’ when they
made the statement.
But, if ten most reliable men in any community, at the present
day, should state that they were present on such an occasion, and
give all the particular circumstances of the case, I could not
believe the fact occurred; and I think, if an hundred, nay, the
whole five thousand, should testify to it, very few Christians would
believe it. I should say they were deceived,— bread and fishes,
in abundance, might be brought into the midst of such a multi
tude, and they know nothing about the means of bringing. Hence,
the inference is plain that I do not believe the fact above related:
and may I not infer the same in the case of others, whatever their
professions ? I can conceive an explanation of the fact (if it be a
fact) which, to many spiritualists, will be perfectly rational.
It has been asserted by thousands that spirits have moved mate
rial substances, and conveyed them to a greater or less distance
through the air. I have presented testimony to this effect in this
essay. But the most remarkable facts of this kind I have not
mentioned, for I know they would be rejected, however much
testimony I might produce in their favor. I have been told, by
the parties themselves, that spirits have conveyed letters from them
to the distance of several hundred miles, and brought back answers,
of which they gave me, in all gravity, the fullest particulars. Re
liable persons have stated that when they have been in want of
certain articles (specifying the articles), those very things have
been placed before them by spirits. The last spiritualist paper I
read gave an account of a ribbon and a knife being conveyed by
spirits across the Atlantic ocean. The case of the knife being
taken from under the table and again replaced, as stated by Mr.
Garrison, involves the same principle.
�29
This fact — the ability of spirits to convey material objects
through the air — being established, as it is, in connection with the
fact that angels or spirits ministered unto Jesus, Mark 4:11,
and what he said on one occasion, “ Thinkest thou that I cannot
now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than
twelve legions of angels (spirits)?” [Matt. 26: 53], suggests a
plausible explanation of the above miracle. Spirits, perhaps,
“more than twelve legions ” of them, were employed in bringing
bread and fishes from the neighboring towns and villages. But
this explanation, plausible as it is, and no doubt acceptable to
many spiritualists, appears to me really ludicrous. Why ? Simply
because it would be more natural and easy for Jesus to dismiss the
multitude, in accordance with the suggestions of his disciples, and
permit them to go home and get their supper, than to employ so
many angels to take each a loaf of bread and a fish under his
wing, and bring them into the desert, and, after they had there
eaten, immediately dismiss them to their homes. The object
secured by all this angelic parade “would not pay.” But how
much more would it not pay for the Almighty Ruler of a million
worlds, the infinite and unchangeable God, to suspend or counter
act any of the “ immutable laws ” by which he governs all nature,
or create new laws, to accomplish this simple object! The idea
of spirits doing it is ludicrous, but the idea of the Deity doing it
is a solemn absurdity. And any person whose mind is so consti
tuted that he cannot accept the wonderful facts of modern spirit
ualism, which we have given on the testimony of forty witnesses,
cannot believe this far more wonderful fact on the testimony of
four witnesses.
CLASS II. — RAISING A PERSON FROM THE DEAD.
There is only one case of this kind in the New Testament,
that of Lazarus. — In the other cases there is no certainty that
the persons were really deaf as any one will readily see by
referring to the accounts themselves. Persons are very frequently
supposed to be dead, and sometimes buried, when they are only in
a swoon. But I think, in the case of Lazarus, this could not be.
It is not at all probable that he could lie in this state four days,
�30
and in the tomb. I am aware that this account is given more in
detail than that of any other miracle in the New Testament. But
I will ask any candid person, who professedly believes this narrative
given in the writings of only one man, and those of doubtful au
thorship, but who finds it too great a stretch of credulity to believe
“modern miracles” on the testimony of a thousand living wit
nesses, — I will ask such a person, Could you believe a fact similar
to that related in the gospel of John, if ten most reliable men
should declare they saw it performed 2 If not, then may I not
infer that you, with me, do not believe this account? I think
the other gospel writers did not believe it, or they would have re
corded it. For, if it took place, they must have known it, as Jesus
was a particular friend in this family of Lazarus. It is a greater
miracle than they have mentioned; and I can account for their
silence only on the ground that they never heard the story,
or did not believe it. I know not why a big story could not grow
up from a small matter in that age, as well as in the present age.
All, who have read any considerable portion of the church fathers
know that the greater story they could tell, the better ; and who
can say how early they began to fabricate them, or when the
gospel of John was written?
The silence of the other three histories, as to this greatest of all
the miracles, looks rather suspicious. It can be accounted for
only in one of three ways : either the writers did not hear of the
miracle, or they did not believe it, or they did not think it of
sufficient importance to be recorded.
The last supposition cannot be accepted; for they all three, with
John, record several miracles, which we all know, and which they
must have known, were far less important than this.
Either of the others amounts to the same thing. For, had such
a miracle as this occurred in the presence of so “many Jews”
(John 11: 45 and 46), it would have been not only extensively
known, but well attested. This, and the fact that Lazarus, with his
family, were particular friends of Jesus and his disciples (John
11: 11), makes it certain that they all would have known the fact,
had it really occurred as related in the fourth gospel. So, if they
heard but did not believe the story, having the same means of
�91
Ol
knowing the facts, we must conclude that it was false. The
Jews, who did not believe in Jesus, might hear of this or any
other work of Jesus, and not believe it; or they might witness
facts, and think it a deception or an imposture, as many at the
present day, who disbelieve “spirit manifestations,” reject any
particular fact, though they may have been eye-witnesses to it.
But this could not be the case with the disciples of Jesus. They
would both have known and believed the fact, had Jesus raised
Lazarus to life, after he had been dead (11 : 13, 14) four days in
the tomb. Since, then, we are compelled to accept one of those
alternatives, — namely, that they did not know, or did not believe,
— we must conclude that the fact did not occur as related.
This reasoning proceeds on the supposition that the three first
gospels were written by the immediate disciples of Jesus; but, if
they were written by those of a later period, the reasoning, with
a slight alteration, will apply with equal force.
CLASS XII. — CHILD BORN WITH NO NATURAL FATHER.
How do we know ? Somebody said so. Who said so ? Sup
posed to be Matthew and Luke ! Who told them ? Suppose
Paul told Luke, and somebody told Matthew and Paul; for
neither of these persons knew anything about the child or its
mother till thirty years after he was born. Suppose, then,
the mother of the child told this story, for it must come to this at
last. Joseph’s dream cannot be credited among a people who do
not believe in dreams and visions; nor can any of the spiritual
communications to Mary, or any of the parties, be relied upon by
those who do not believe it possible for spirits to communicate to
mortals. We then have the story reported to us at second-hand,
at least.
Now, where is the court, in any country, which could accept
such second-handed testimony as this, for the most natural event ?
And could the most credulous Christian judge, upon any bench,
but smile with pity upon the unfortunate female who should per
sonally give oath before him that her child had no natural father,
or that an angel, or a spirit, had begotten him; and would he not
�32
be the more surprised, should she solemnly declare that no less a
spirit than God himself had done this ? Why, this goes beyond all
the spirit intercourse of modern times ; though there were many
similar stories told, and believed, in those ancient times. The
people then did not think it at all strange for the gods to have
intercourse with women; and it appears, by the Old Testament,
that Jews could credit such stories, as well as the heathens,—
Gen. 4 : 2 and 4.
I am fully aware that those who professedly believe these stories
do not receive them on the flimsy testimony which is given in
their support, but through their theories of ££ the fallf and ££ the
plan of redemption ; ” else they accept them from tradition and
habit, as they do many others, without the disposition or courage
to question them. But, should we not be cautious how we build
theories upon facts so poorly substantiated ? Theories to support
the facts — then make the facts support the theories ! and this
when both the theories and the facts are, in themselves, so mon
strous and absurd, if not blasphemous, that human nature revolts
at them 1
�TESTIMONY.
Case I.
No. 1. Testimony of seven to class 1., taken from a statement published
in “ The Spirit World," Feb. 1, 1851.
>
We, the undersigned, having witnessed this day, at the house of
La Roy Sunderland (No. 28 Elliot-st., Boston), the following phenom
ena, deem it proper, in this way, to make mention of them.
We asked the spirits if they would give us some physical manifesta
tions, and we were promptly answered by raps in the affirmative.
The table was then immediately moved in various directions, from
one to two feet, - and, at our request, was quite a number of times
turned over into the laps of those surrounding it. In two instances
it was raised entirely from the floor, and we are positive that no human
instrumentality was employed in producing these results.
Upon the evening of the same day we met again, with the addition
of two to our circle. The circle was formed in Mr. Sunderland’s back
parlor, as before, when the following, among other phenomena, were
produced.
On holding each other’s hands, so that no one was at liberty in the
room, a centre-table around which we were sitting was raised up from
the floor five times, and let down with considerable force, so as to shake
the floor. Once or twice the raps were made, not on the table, but *
with it, the table being used by the spirit, as we were assured, to rap
on the floor.
Five times the table was upset and turned over, so that it fell sidewise upon the floor, with violence. A small bell, which stood upon the
table, was moved without human hands from the table, four times. It
*
was thrown upon the floor, thrown into the lap of Dr. Kibbee,. and
4
�finally it was removed by the spirit, and they spelled out, “ Find the
bell, which was the first we knew of its absence. Search was made
by one of the company, while the others remained in the circle, holding
each other s hands. After the search had been continued for some
minutes, the bell was accidentally discovered in Mrs. Cooper’s lap, as it
fell out from the folds of her apron ! During the whole of this tinw,
Mrs. Cooper’s hands had been held in the hands of two of the company,
standing or sitting, by her side. We can only say, that we have been
profoundly impressed with the conviction that no human agency what
ever was used in the production of the phenomena we have described.
Signed,
7i. P. Kibbee, M. D., Springfield, Mass.
Rufus Elmer,
«
«
Nelson L. Elmer,
“
«
Theodore M. Smith, Boston,
«
George E. Haskell,
“
“
Z. Rogers, Charlestown,
“
Moses Babcock, “
«
Boston, Jan. 22d, 1851.
No. 2. Testimony of three to class I., taken from a statement which
appeared in “ The Pittsburg Despatch:'
On the evening of Friday, March 21st (1851), our circle met at
the house of Mr. Courtney. After mentioning some conversation with
what they supposed an ignorant spirit, and some very violent physical
phenomena, to remove the ground for suspicion, we then formed a com
plete circle of all in the room, around the table, joining hands; Mary
and Mrs. Bushnell (mediums) included. A case-knife was then thrown
from the mantel into the middle of the floor, a distance of several
yards. Another book was thrown from the stand against the opposite
wall; and various other articles were tossed about in a strange mann®r
all the while a loud and muffled knocking being kept up,' caus
ing the house to shake, and the table to jar and tremble. There is not
in this case the slightest ground for suspicion of fraud and collusion, as
our two media were in the circle during the last scene, with their hands
tightly held. We will not, for a moment, suppose that the charge of
imposition will be alleged against any- of the others present, as they are
all well known in this community, with the exception of Mr. Joseph
Ketler, of New Castle, Pa., whose character can be sworn to be unex• ceptionable.
The following persons were present: W. S. Courtney, William II.
�35
Williams (broker), Milo A. Townsend, William McDonald, Joseph
Ketler, Mrs. Courtney, Mrs. Bushnell and Mary and Caroline Cronk,
all of whom are willing to testify to the facts above related.
Signed,
W. S. Courtney.
Milo A. Townsend.
William McDonald.
No. 3. Testimony of eight to class I.
To the Editors of the Republican : As many of our citizens
are of opinion that the wonders of Spiritualism, so called, have been
explained away by Prof. Grimes, as being a manifestation of the mes
meric power, and as the professor asserted that the manifestations
would cease from that time forth in this community, I am induced to
offer you the following facts, which I, in company with several other
persons, witnessed at the house of Rufus Elmer, in this city, on the
evening of the 28th of February, 1854. The circle, consisting of nine
persons besides the medium, were seated around a common cherry
table, when the following phenomena occurred. The table commenced
a trembling, vibratory motion ; sounds were heard on the floor and table,
some of which were very loud. Then the table was rocked with great
force; then raised nearly, if not quite, two feet from the floor, and was
held supported in mid air with a waving motion, as if floating on the
agitated waters of the sea, for considerable time. This operation was
repeated a number of times. Then, by the tipping, we were directed
to place the dinner-bell (weighing one pound one ounce) under the
table, on the floor, where it was rung with great violence many times;
questions answered by the raps upon it, and with it each individual in
the circle was touched in such a manner that there could be no mistake
about it. We then requested the spirits to pass the bell from the floor,
and place it into our hands, which was done to each individual sepa
rately ; and again, at our request, it was taken from our hands, and
carefully deposited upon the floor. Again, while we sung the hymn,
“ While shepherds watched,” the bell was raised from the floor and rung
in perfect time with the measure of the tune sung (Old Coronation),
after which another tune was drummed out with the bell against the
under side of the table, the sound resembling the roll of drumsticks in
the hands of a skilful performer upon a tenor drum. This was con
tinued for several minutes.
•
All the above I know was performed without human agency; the
�36
hands of each person present, during the whole performance above
described, being on the top of the table, with the room well lighted,
and in the full view of every person present; and this was also the
case during the whole sitting. During the whole time of the various
performances with the bell, as well as before and after it, our garments
were pulled almost constantly; two handkerchiefs were firmly knotted
together, while laying in the laps of the owners; our persons were
many times touched more or less forcibly, producing a peculiar and
indescribable sensation; some of us had our limbs grasped with con
siderable force, and distinctly felt the form of the spirit hand — a soft,
delicate, elastic yet powerful touch, which cannot be described, but
must be felt to be appreciated. The reader will bear in mind that the
hands of every person present were in plain view on the top of the
table.
“ The name of the medium is withheld, he being, like many others in
our city, unwilling to face the bitter contempt, scorn and sneers, which
must be borne by all who have the moral courage to honestly and fear
lessly advocate and defend the claims of the modern manifestations to
a spiritual origin.
Yours, in the cause of truth,
H. F. Gardner.
Springfield, March 1, 1854.
We, the other members of the circle above referred to, most sol
emnly and emphatically declare the foregoing statement, subscribed by
Dr. Gardner, to be strictly and literally true; and that we were sever
ally in our normal condition, both of mind and body, were fully con
scious of all that transpired, and know, as well as we are capable of
knowing any fact, that the manifestations above related were produced
by some invisible intelligence entirely independent of ourselves or of
the medium.
Mrs. John Lord,
F. C. Andreu,
Mrs. R. Elmer,
Rufus Elmer,
Mrs. S. A. Richie,
Marshall Elmer,
Miss Mary M. Harris.
Springfield, March 1, 1854.
[Springfield Republican.
No. 4. Testimony of four to class I. Extract from a statement pub
lished in “ The Springfield Republican ” of 1853.
“ The undersigned, from a sense of justice to the parties referred to,
very cordially bear testimony to the occurrence of the following facts,
�37
which we severally witnessed at the house of Rufus Elmer, in Spring
field, on the evening of the 5th inst.
The table was moved in every possible direction, and with great
force, when we could not perceive any cause of motion.
Mr. Wells seated himself on the table, which was rocked for some time
with great violence; and at length it poised itself upon two legs, and
remained in this position for some thirty seconds, when no other person
was in contact with the table.
Three persons, Messrs. Wells, Bliss and Edwards, assumed positions
on the table at the same time, and while thus seated the table was
moved in various directions.
Occasionally we were made conscious of a powerful shock, which
produced a vibratory motion on the floor of the apartment in which
we were seated. It seemed like the motion occasioned by distant
thunder, or the firing of ordnance far away; causing the tables, chairs
and other inanimate objects, and all of us, to tremble in such a manner
that the effects were both seen and felt. In the whole exhibition we were
constrained to admit that there was almost constant manifestation of
intelligence, which seemed at least independent of the circle. During
these occurrences the room was well lighted, and every possible oppor
tunity was afforded us for the closest inspection; and we submit this,
our emphatic declaration.
We know we were not imposed upon nor deceived.
Wm. Bryant,
Wm. Edwards,
B. K. Bliss,
David A. Wells.
Note.— These four witnesses are, as I have been informed, well
known in this community, and are of undoubted veracity. Mr. Wells
is Professor of Chemistry in this University.
No. 5. Testimony of 1 to class I. Case of lifting a person into the
air, taken from Rev. Herman Snow's book on “ Spirit Intercourse,”
p. 64.
In the month of March, 1852, being at the house of Rev. J. J.
Locke, in the town of Barre, Mass., one evening, as we were seated in
a circle around a table, — I should say about a dozen persons present,
several of whom were strangers to us, — all listening to some messages
that were being spelled out by raps on the table (which stood inde
pendent from the touch of any), by the use of the alphabet; all was
*
4
�38
still and peaceful, the room well lighted, and no one expecting any
thing unusual, that I was aware of, when Mrs. Cheney’s right hand began
to rise very gradually and steadily — up, up — higher and higher —
till it seemed to raise her from the chaii’; still upward she was raised,
until she swung in the open atmosphere between the floor and ceiling,
and positively not coming in contact with any visible thing whatever.
Such are the facts in relation to the case, as near as I can state them.
If any should doubt the above statement, I am happy to say that I am
able to substantiate any part of it by reliable evidence.
'
Yours, in the faith,
Athol Depot, April 26, 1853.
S. F. Cheney.
Note.— Mr. Snow states that Mr. and Mrs. Cheney are personal
acquaintances of his; that they are of excellent moral character, and
members of Rev. Mr. Clark’s church, in Athol; and may be referred
to for the fact, should any one question it.
Case II.
No. 1. Testimony of 2 to classes I and II.
Messrs. Partridge and Brittan.
Dear Sirs : We have some very strong spiritual manifestations here
in Baltimore. Our citizens are waking up to investigate the beautiful
phenomena, and we have a large number of mediums being developed.
We have also an association for investigating the subject, and over two
hundred private circles. The following is a brief description of the
phenomena which occurred at one of our private circles:
The circle met at 8 o’clock in the evening, at B. S. Benson’s house
— five ladies and four gentlemen being present. The circle was formed,
the lights were removed, and, after singing, Miss L., Miss H., Mrs. A.
P. P., mediums present, were perceived to be in the interior state, by
their description of things then transpiring in the room. It was said,
“ There is Franklin; there are three others with him; they have boxes
under their arms; they place them under the table ; they are going to
make raps ; they say something is wrong; they have gone over in the
corner of the room, and are talking together and pointing to the table;
they now bring two more boxes ; they say they are going to break the
table.” The raps, or rather pounding, commenced, and were as if made
by a muffled mall, of many pounds’ weight, suspended under the table,
at first striking so lightly as not to raise the table, but increasing by
�39
degrees, until the table was raised from the floor some ten or twelve
inches, all four legs of the table being off the floor at once. The table
was heard to drop, as if it had fallen some distance, with a tremendous
crash. There were no material means used to produce the raps, nor did
there exist a possibility of deception, there being no one in the room
but those joined in the circle, hand in hand, around the table, not one
of whom touched the table at the time. The table was at one time
thrown on the lap of a lady present, and thrown off by the same
unseen power. All present, at times, saw lights in different directions
around the room, as well as over the table. After some tremendous
poundings, which made some of those present fear they would be struck
with pieces of the table, it was then spoken by one of the mediums,
“ Nothing more to-night.”
Yours, truly,
B. S. Benson,
W. W. Laning.
No. 2. Testimony of 1 to classes II. and III. Experience of a Clergy
man. From “ Spiritual Telegraph," April 15, 1854.
Having been a Methodist local preacher, in England and America,
for about twenty years, I had many difficulties to contend with ; yet I
considered that if Spiritualism was what it purported to be, it would
be worth everything to me.
I have twelve children, and a number of them are writing, speaking
and seeing mediums; therefore I have had a good opportunity to inves
tigate. I did that which many professors do not do. I did not try to
prove the spirits good or bad spirits by my old opinions, but permitted
them to write whatever they thought proper. My wife has given me
all the evidence I could wish for. * * * *
From the time of her death up to the present time, I have received
evidence enough to satisfy any reasonable man. * * * * I have
also constantly received communications from relations and friends.
They told me I was to be a seeing medium, and so it proved.
The first I saw was (as they call it) the spirits in open daylight
(not in the body). They are always with me. * * * *
They light me to bed with a bright cloud, and I can see them by
candle-light moving around the room in colors of crimson and blue;
and now of late I am enabled to see my father, mother, sister and
brother-in-law; but none as plainly, or so long at a time, as my wife.
�40
I have been able to examine her features and dress. She looks
about thirty years of age. * * * *
Joseph Brydle.
Kellogsville, Ashtabula Co., Ohio.
Case III.
No. 1. Testimony ofl to class III.
While at High Rock, Katy professed to see the spirit of the wife
of J esse Hutchinson, who left the form before she came to this country.
On being shown a number of daguerreotype likenesses, one of which
was that of Mrs. H., without any intimation as to the object, she imme
diately exclaimed, “ 0, there’s Mrs. Hutchinson ; ” and, the company
refusing to acknowledge the fact, and apparently denying it, only made
her the more earnestly declare that it was the countenance she had
seen in the spirit world! She never had seen the likeness of Mrs. H.
before.
Rufus Elmer.
Nov. 6, 1852.
No. 2. Testimony of (1) Mr. Chase and seven others, to classes 1 and
III. Taken from Adin Ballou's “ Spirit Manifestations."
About the last of October, 1851, I was at the house of Marcus C.
Wilcox, of Blackstone. What purported to be his wife, Sybil Chase
spelled out through the raps, in answer to the question if it would ever
be possible for her to take his hand; “ I cannot shake hands with you
here, but, if you will go to the house of Meltiah Knowlton, in Green
ville, R. I., and sit with Daniel Knowlton, I will take hold of your
hand.” At the same time my father and George Knowlton, who pur
ported to be present, said they would take hold of my hand, if I
would go to Greenville and sit with Daniel.
Soon after this, in company with Mr. C. Wilcox he went to the
house of Mr. Knowlton, in Greenville. He says, I then held out
my hand in open space, where it was not possible to be reached
by any one present without altering their position, — which they did
not, as I must have seen them, — I felt a hand as perfect as that
of a living person; the touch and separation of th.e fingers were
plainly perceptible. It purported to be the hand of my former
wife. One of her hands was deformed by being badly burnt when a
child. Two of her fingers were bent inwards toward the palm, and
the nail on one of the fingers was very short and thick. I then asked
�41
her to put her deformed hand into mine, which she immediately did ;
and then passed her fingers with the thick nail, over the palm of my
hand, as if to convince me of her identity. Afterward, my father and
George Knowlton (or what purported to be them) put their hands into
mine.
Much more was done at the time; one particular of which I will
relate. I held in my hand two pieces of money, which were taken out
and passed into the hand of Mrs. Knowlton at a distance of about six
feet, by an invisible hand.
Blackstone, June 30, 1852.
(The above is given in the words of Mr. Chase.)
If the believers in the New Testament accounts object to the reality
of the above phenomena, on account that the physical deformity of a
hand could not be continued in the spirit world, or represented by a
spirit, we would refer them to the case mentioned in the twentieth chap
ter of John, where a spirit (“the doors being shut”) appeared in the
midst of a company, and exhibited to the touch of one present, the
wounds inflicted upon his physical body but few days before. It seems
the two cases are very similar; and certainly the testimony in favor of
the case we present is as reliable as that in favor of the case here
referred to; for we have in the one case the words of the very person
who witnessed the fact, while in the other we do not; nor does the
writer say he was present on the occasion, or tell us how he obtained
his information. If it be asserted that, in the case of Thomas, an
object was accomplished, we will give the very words of Mr. Chase, to
show that precisely the same object was accomplished in his case.
“ For more than twenty years,” says he, “ I was a confirmed sceptic, or
infidel, as the people called me. I did not believe man had an immor
tal soul, or any existence after the death of the body; but, in witness
ing the incident related hereafter, relative to the defective hand of
Sybil Chase, my former wife, feeling the bent and stiffened fingers, the
short and thick nails, my scepticism departed, and I believed that man
possessed an immortal part.” I will further quote from Mr. Ballou in
reference to Mr. Scott and Mr. Wilcox, both being present with Mr.
Chase on the occasion above named. Mr. Wilcox affirms that this
(feeling the pressure of spirit hands) has taken place, to his knowl
edge, more than one hundred times. The grasp is generally sensible,
firm and cordial. Mr. Wilcox says he has frequently been permitted
to feel of the hand, wrist, and part of the arm, as deliberately as he
�42
ever did one of flesh and blood. The spirits represent that they have
power, under certain circumstances, to assume forms proper to manifest
themselves to the senses of mortals, either to touch or sight. Mr.
Ballou states that Emery Scott, Ellis Cook, Marcus Wilcox and his
wife Eliza, distinctly saw a spirit hand and arm, on several occasions,
both separately and together; and states the particulars which render
it impossible that they should be deceived. At the close of the chap
ter, he says, “ The persons referred to in the foregoing narrative
(Harvey Chase, Mr. and Mrs. Marcus C. Wilcox, Mr. Emery Scott,
Elis Cook, Benj. Ray, of Blackstone, Meltiah Knowlton and Daniel
Knowlton, of Greenville, R. I.) have authorized me to refer any
doubter or inquirer to them, as witnesses of the facts set forth, and of
numerous similar facts. Messrs. Emery Scott, Marcus C. Wilcox
and Harvey Chase, are not only willing, but desirous, that I should
state to the public their conversion to a firm and happy belief in the
immortality of all human souls. Scott was for many years an intelli
gent but inveterate materialist. He says he desired to believe in
man’s future existence, but could find no proof of it adequate to a
rational conviction. He ridiculed the very idea of spirits communicat
ing with mortals, and for some time stubbornly refused to witness what
was going on at the house of Mr. Wilcox. Mr. Wilcox was brought
up an Atheist, and says he ‘ hated the very sight of the Bible from
childhood.’ ”
Here we have an equivalent to the testimony of eight persons, vouched
for by Adin Ballou (of Hopedale, Mass.), whose veracity and whose
candor are above suspicion. Besides, the persons are ready to be
referred so by those who doubt, — their names and residences being
given ; the parties, some of them at least, more sceptical and not at
all inclined to favor the spiritual side of nature. They had no preju
dices in favor, but all against, the idea of communications from spirits
out of the body. To reject such testimony, without a thorough
inquiry, by referring to the witnesses themselves, and making personal
experiments with the same, or other mediums, in whose presence such
facts are said to occur, is not only unscientific- and irrational, but the
most stupid bigotry, which none save those whose whole minds are made
up of traditions taken in with their mother’s milk, and with as little
thought, will be guilty of.
�43
Case IV.
JVo. 1. Testimony oflto class IV.
Mr. J. F. Lanning, says: “ In the month of August, 1851, I first
became sensibly influenced by some invisible power moving my hand to
write without the aid of my will, and in a short time very rapidly.
* * * * I have also often heard whisperings^ as distinctly as if
some one was at my side in conversation with me."
No. 2. Testimony of 1 to classes III. and TV. Taken from a state
ment published in the first “ Spiritual Telegraph."
* * * * That same day I received another word or words
sealed up as the first, from the hands of a gentleman, who is now, and
has been for several years, the proprietor of a city paper, with a
request similar to the first. I was sitting alone in my chamber at my
residence, a short distance from the city, at about eleven o’clock on the
night of the 8th of April, when * * * * I saw the form of my
wife standing within arm’s-length of my chair, and near the table. It
is utterly impossible for me to describe her appearance, further than
that she was, so far as features were concerned, just as she appeared in
life; but there was a bright, almost dazzling radiance about her, which
defies description.
After standing for, perhaps, ten seconds, with her eyes all the time
fixed on me, she took up from the table the sealed envelope, held it in
her fingers, and smiled as I had seen her a thousand times when living.
I am as well satisfied that I saw the words in the envelope quite as
plainly as I do these which I am now writing, as I am of my own
existence. I took up my pen, and wrote two names; whereupon the
“ presence,” or whatever it was, laid down the envelope with the most
meaning smile of satisfaction I ever beheld, and almost immediately
took up a pencil, and — I did not see her write, or lay down the pencil;
but I did see the pencil laying on the paper, and there, too, I saw the
following sentence, written in Spanish, and the exact chirography of
my wife when alive : “ God has called a mighty army for my hus
band.” Thirty seconds might have passed, during which time I sat
and gazed at the “ form,” as free from agitation as I ever was in my
life; when she spoke, —and I should have recognized that voice in an
instant among ten thousand, even had I not seen her. “ I must go
now, but I will come again, some time; ” and the next moment I was
�44
conscious of being alone, although I have no knowledge how the pres
ence disappeared. On the succeeding night I saw her in my room
three several times after I was in bed; and, if ever I heard words audi
bly spoken in my life, it was that “ form,” saying, “ Husband, I have
been to bless our little Inez.” (Our child, now nearly three years old,
at Grenada, in Spain.) On the following Monday, I gave the words
which I had written, together with the sealed envelope, to the gentle
man from whom I had received it, and who, after satisfying himself
that no efforts had been made to get at its contents, declared the names
to be correct; then, opening the envelope, in presence of witnesses who
had seen it sealed, proved, by comparing them, that they were correct
in every particular. * * * *
George R. Raymond.
Case V.
No. 1. Testimony of 1 to class V. Taken from a statement of Dr.
Joseph R. Buchanan, of Cincinnati, Ohio ; published in the
“ Journal of Man,” for May, 1852.
Spirits not only rap out the messages in languages foreign to the
medium, but, by impressing the mind of a suitable medium, enable him
to speak in a language to him entirely unknown.
Dr. Buchanan goes on to relate the particulars of a female speaking
French. She stated in that language, wholly unknown to her, that a
bloody war would soon break out, and overwhelm the continent of
Europe.
He also says of Mr. F.: “ This young gentleman, a school-teacher
by profession, having no knowledge of any foreign language, except a
slight smattering of Latin, has fallen under the influence of spirits
belonging to other nations, and speaks their language familiarly, with
out knowing the meaning of what he is uttering. * * * * Under
the influence of the Indian chief, Red Jacket, he delivers Indian
speeches, sings Indian songs, and performs the Indian dances. * * * *
Two of the company present, who were acquainted with the Indian
languages, spoke of his speech with approbation, as a genuine Indian
harangue, and a fine specimen of oratory. Mr. F. also declaims in a
language supposed to be Chinese, as he writes, under the control of the
same spirit, characters which resemble Chinese writing. I have sev
eral specimens of his writing in the character of a medium, some of
which resemble the Chinese, others the Arabic, and others the Hebrew.
�45
No. 2. Testimony of one to classes I., V. and VI. From a private
letter to the Ed. “ Spiritual Telegraphy
Wheeling, Va., July 1, 1852.
In the same vicinity [Lloydsville, Bel. Co., Ohio] is a child who is
made to speak Dutch, though she is of Irish descent. Another, who
never wrote a word, never tried to learn, and yet she has written a
legible hand while under spirit influence.
In Harrison Co., Ohio, at the house of Mr. Steel, almost every
article of furniture is moved. A stand placed in the centre of the
room moves about when no person is in the house !
J. B. Wolf.
Case VI.
No. 1. Testimony of one to class VI.
N. Y. Conference,— Weekly Report, — Friday, Aug. 6th, 1854.—
Meeting large. Dr. Smith mentioned the case of a child, some seven
or eight years of age, — the family of an acquaintance of his.
She appears to be a medium of considerable powers ; but, what is
more singular, the child, without having been taught, as far as is known
to any of the family, has recently and most unexpectedly been able to
read ! The child’s Own simple statement of the matter is, that her
mother in heaven has come to her, and taught her to read.
R. T. Hallock, Seely.
No. 2. Testimony of one to class VI.
New York Conference, Friday Evening, March Ath, 1853.—Mr.
Waters, among many other interesting facts, stated that, in West Troy,
a child four years old had been developed as a medium. The child
cannot write, yet communications are made through her in writing, and
with fac-similes of the hand-writing of deceased persons.
R. T. Hallock, SeCy.
Note. — This case, though not precisely the same as being taught
to read, involves the same principles, and is equally remarkable.
Case VII.
No. 1. Testimony of one to class VII.
The following interesting letter we take from the Practical Christian,
5
�46
of which Adin Ballou is the principal editor. A. A. Ballou, the
communicating spirit, is the son of Adin, and departed from the earth
life some two years ago.
Cuba, N. Y.
Dear Adin: On the 21st of Jan. last, 1854, Augustus took
control of Cora, and commenced influencing a sick lady who was very
low with the asthma. After operating upon the patient a few moments,
Cora was caused to lay her hands upon Miss Lucina Folsom, another
medium. Miss F. was immediately entranced, and resumed the busi
ness of operating upon the sick lady.
[The spirit here gives to the medium a description of the disease.]
About one-third of one lobe of the lungs was consumed, and the
surrounding parts appeared in a decaying condition. The bronchial
tubes on that side were obstructed by a thick glutinous substance,
which prevented the natural circulation.
lie raid the disease could be arrested where it was, and the lungs
healed over; but the organs could not be created anew where they
were gone. Cora was. again entranced, and wrote : “ If Lucina will
come here, we will operate on the sick lady, and she will receive great
benefit. Come about once a week.” This was a desperate case, of
many years’ standing. The patient was reduced to a mere skeleton,
and had not lain down in bed for some six months, on account of suf
focation. I have lately received a letter from her father, stating that
she now does her housework, shows no signs of her disease, is gaining
flesh fast, and has laid in bed without difficulty from the time above
mentioned. This was the first case, and unexpected to us all; the sub
ject not having been introduced or anticipated.
Another circumstance. One evening, Augustus delivered a lecture
through Cora, in our circle at Lake Mills, concerning heaven and hell
as being a state or condition of the mind, the spirit-land a place, &c.
&c. After closing the discourse, he said he must leave immediately,
and go to Waterloo, — that there was a gathering there, and a medium
from Sun Prairie, through whom he could speak. This was about
forty-five minutes past 7. We ascertained, the next day, that at about
that moment Mr. Budlong, of Sun Prairie, was entranced, and the
spirit announced his name to be A. A. Ballou, who spoke a communi
cation concerning heaven and hell as being a state or condition of the
mind, the spirit-land a place, &c. &c.; the identical subject, word for
word, that was delivered to us a few minutes before. The distance
between the two places is eight miles, and we had no knowledge of
their meeting, nor they of ours.
�47
I will not attempt to relate any more circumstances relative to this
subject. Were I present with you, I could tell you similar and more
“ astounding facts,” till my speech had become mute with hoarseness.
I am here with Cora, making an “ uproar among the people.” Through
Cora, a lecture has been delivered and questions answered before an
assembly of some five hundred people. The spirit-doctor has taken all
the cases of the worst character, — such as total blindness, consump
tion in the last stages, hereditary infirmities, &c., where all earthly
hopes are gone, — if the patients are willing and desirous of submitting
themselves to spirit influence. In such cases, the disease is arrested,
and the patient begins to recover from “ that very hour.” The Lord
knows what will become of us, or where we shall end — I don’t. This,
however, I do know, “ we enter into rest,” and are at peace with all
men — desiring the truth.
D. W. Scott.
No. 2. Testimony of one to class VII. Three cases of healing. H. H.
Hunt, Clergyman, Medium, from “ Spiritual Telegraph," Jan. 8,
1853.
Addison, Sept. 13, 1852.
In September, 1851, while in Indiana, I went to hear the rappings,
when I became convinced that there must be a spiritual agency in
volved in the matter. But by my position as a preacher of the Gospel
x being restrained from giving my sentiments to the public, I remained
silent, until January of 1852, when two of my daughters became
media for the sounds. After investigating the matter, and still finding
no other solution than the spiritual theory, I imputed it to the devil,
who, appearing as an angel of light, stood ready to deceive the very
elect. Indeed, I was angry at the sounds; but, as they would not
stop, I made this request, — that the unseen powers would not make my
children victims of hell, but spare them and try me.
After retiring the same night, the spirits paralyzed both my arms,
keeping them in continual motion until six o’clock in the morning, when
the circular alphabet was handed me ; and then I learned my duty
from good authority. As soon as this was made clear, I commenced
holding meetings in public, and up to this date my time has been spent
lecturing on the subject. * * * Ata circle held at Adrian, the first
Sunday in July, the spirits wrote, “ Seek the lame, the halt and the
infirm, and they shall be healed.” I then remarked to Mr. J. Rey
nolds, “ It cannot be done; if that is read, away go the spirits, and
converse to others, for some one will be presented and not cured.”
�48
Nevertheless the call was read by my colleague, when Mr. Lyons
presented himself, stating that his leg had been drawn up by rhenmatism four years, and was under acute pain at the time.’ Without
exercise of my own volition, I was thrown into the spiritual state, and
placed before him. I was also made to speak by the power of the
spirit. Like doubting Thomas of old, I put my hand on him, and he
was made whole. He dropped his cane, and went away rejoicing, fleet
as a boy of sixteen.
Cure of Fits.
2. After this, a child, son of D. C. Smith, was very sick. The
physician having given the most powerful medicine for stopping the
fits without effect, the father called me in. I seated myself by the boy,
and was put in communication with him by an unseen agency. Soon
the patient showed too clearly that another fit was coming on; but,
instead of his suffering from the attack, the whole power of the malady
fell on me. The agonizing distress, the clenched fist and contracted
muscle, gave me alarm for my own safety; but the second thought,
that I was in the hand of spirits, quieted me, and I threw off the attack.
The boy had no more fits, but got well.
3. Last July, I was called to visit Mrs. Brownell, near Adrian. She
had been sick with a weak back and continual pain in the side. Her
doctor said her liver was decayed, and she could never regain her
health.
I was moved by the power of spirits to lay my hand on her back
and head, when she said, “ I feel strange and dizzy.” I told her to
trust in God, for he was able to restore her to health. She now is well,
doing the work of her family, which she had not done before for two
years.
There are other cases which I might give, if time would permit.
Yours, in spiritual affinity,
H. H. Hunt.
No. 3. Testimony of one to class VII. “ Spirit Telegraph,” Sept. 1853.
Bridgeport, Jan. 13, 1853.
Six weeks ago last Thursday evening, Mrs. Phebe Jane Wooster, of
this place, was developed as a spiritual medium. The spirits say that
her mission, at present, is to heal the sick and wounded, the lame, the
halt and the blind. Previous to her development as a medium, she
was rather opposed to Spiritualism, but was willing to investigate the
subject. She was never an enthusiast, but submitted all subjects to the
�49
test of reason, and would never assent to anything until sufficient evi
dence was given to convince her of its truth. She was always modest
and unassuming in her deportment, and hence is compelled to do and
say many things, when acted on by spirits, in opposition to her own
views and feelings, even in the normal state. When this part of her
mission was first announced by the spirits, I must confess I was some
what sceptical about it. But my scepticism was soon removed, for, the
third day after she was developed, her predicted powers were put to
the test, and found competent to remove even a putrid disease.
The case to which I allude is as follows: Mrs. Julia Dunn, a near
neighbor, had a putrid sore throat. Large lumps or kernels had gath
ered in it, to such a size that she said she could neither swallow, speak
nor breathe, without suffering the severest pain. She told Mrs. W.
that she wished her to cure her, if possible; to which Mrs. W. replied,
that she knew nothing about it herself, but that the spirits said she could
be cured in less than twenty-four hours.
The spirits immediately took possession of the medium, and caused
her to make passes over the head, throat and stomach, of Mrs. Dunn,
for the space of thirty minutes, after which she turned to the patient
and said, “ To-morrow morning you will be well! ”
The next morning Mrs. Dunn’s complaint had entirely disappeared,
and she was as well as usual.
On the evening of the 24th of December, as we were all engaged in
conversation, my little daughter was taken with a fit, caused, the spirits
said, by sleeping with a cat; and I have every reason to believe that,
if Mrs. W. had not been there at the time, she would not have lived
fifteen minutes. What was most remarkable about it was, that none of
us knew anything was the matter with the child, until the medium was
acted on, got up out of her chair, and went to the child, who was sit
ting directly behind her, and exclaimed, “What is the matter with
Lydia Ann ? ”
I immediately went to the child, and found she was quite cold, and
had stopped breathing; but the medium took her in hand, and, after
making a few passes over her, she revived. . The child said she knew
when Mrs. W. first took hold of her, but that she could neither speak,
breathe, nor stir; that a sort of numbness came over her, and she
experienced no pain.
Case of Asthma cured.
The next day or two after, Mrs. W. was called on to go and see
*
5
�50
one of our neighbors, who had an attack of the asthma. I went in
company with her.
She had not been in the house long before she was acted on, and
spoke as follows:
“You think you are better than you were yesterday, because you
can breathe easier; but the fact is, you are not as well. True, your
asthma is not as bad, but a more deadly disease is eating at your vitals,
which, if not arrested, will terminate in physical death. But fear not;
have confidence in God, and you shall shortly be healed.”
She then commenced operations by placing one hand in his bosom,
and making passes over his system with the other. In about five
minutes’ time, the hand she placed in his bosom was as red as a piece
of scarlet, from the tip of her fingers to the elbow. She changed hands
alternately, and continued to work over him about an hour; after which
she declared he would be well on the morrow, with the exception of a
weakness, from which it would take him two or three days to recover.
Now, it is well to remark that no one suspected the person of having
any fever, more than generally results from a cold; but the medium
had not worked over him longer than ten minutes, before the room was
so filled with fever, it became sickening, and they were obliged to
throw open the door, and let in fresh air, notwithstanding it was a very
cold day, and there was but very little fire in the room at the time.
The spirits said the disease was typhus fever, and those present at the
time believed it.
Cyrus Tyrrell.
No. 4. Testimony oflto class VII.
Morris, Ostego Co., N. Y., Oct. 1852.
I know that I have conversed with the spirits of my departed friends,
as well as I know that I exist, and by the same kind of evidence. I
know by the aid of my natural senses and reason that I exist, and by
the same evidence I know that I communicate with departed spirits.
* * * * For the last six years of my life, my health has been
extremely poor, until I became a medium for spirit communications;
and, by the direction of the spirits, I am now restored to comfortable
health, and, what is better still, I am confirmed in the faith that man is
immortal.
Sarah Herron.
G. T., Dec. 11, 1852.
�No. 5. Testimony of 2 to class VII. S. C. Hewitt and John M. Spear,
“ The Prisoner's Friend."
I select the three following from the many remarkable cures which
have been performed through Mr. Spear, as specimens of the others. I
have heard the first from 'Mr. Spear himself (as I have heard him
relate many more). There can be no doubt as to Mr. Spear’s perfect
sincerity in this whole matter, and the circumstances are such as to
preclude the possibility of his being the dupe of any hallucination.
On the 21st of March, 1852, Mr. Spear’s hand, moving with no con
scious volition, took the pen and wrote, “ You must go to Abington (a
town twenty miles distant), to-morrow night — you will be wanted
there — call on David Vining.” * * * *
Never having had any experience in cases of this kind, and not
knowing anything about Mr. Vining, or what was wanted, Mr. Spear
was very sceptical, and hesitated to obey this request, till it was
urgently pressed several times, and many promises of good results had
been made.
He finally consented to go, as the unseen power directed. He re
ceived several special and encouraging communications in the course of
his journey. Among others was a perfectly satisfactory explanation of
why he was directed to go to Abington, instead of the adjoining town
of Weymouth, where Mr. Vining lived, it being important that he
should go to Abington. From Abington he took with him Mr. Phi
lander Shaw, by spirit direction, and went to Mr. Vining’s house in
W eymouth.
Mr. Spear had never heard of Mr. Vining before, and knew nothing
of the purpose of his being sent to him, till he arrived and found Mr.
Vining very sick with neuralgia.
He had been in the most extreme pain for ten days, and during all
this time had not slept. Mr. Spear immediately felt moved to sit by
his side; which being done, Mr. Spear’s hand began involuntarily to
move, and rested itself on the head of Mr. Vining, near the ear. The
latter in a moment caught up his foot, saying, “ What are you doing
to my leg ? ”
“ I am not doing anything to your leg,” was the reply.
“Well,” said Mr. Vining, “the pain is all gone.”
*
Mr. Vining being then requested to take his bed, replied that he
was afraid to do so while Mr. Spear was present; but, being reassured,
he consented, and, after a refreshing sleep, which had continued for
�52
some time, he remarked an angel had visited him in his sleep, and done
him good.
Mr. Vining soon went about his business, as usual. This he contin
ued till, in consequence of great exposure, he took a severe cold, which
was followed by neuralgia, of which, in about fifty days from the first
cure, he died; Mr. Spear being prevented, by his doubting friends,
again visiting him.
If, from the fact of his subsequent death, it be considered that his
•first cure was not real, we might urge the same objections to every
case of Christ; — for I presume none will doubt that all he cured have
since died,— how soon after the cure by him is not known.
That the cure of Mr. Vining was real and complete, has been fully
confirmed by many witnesses. Should any one doubt, I would refer
him to Mr. Philander Shaw, of Abington, Mass., and Mr. Seth Hunt,
of Weymouth, both of whom testify to the facts.
Again, Mr. Spear was directed, by what purported to be Swedenborg,
to go to Georgetown. He went, not knowing for what purpose. Then
Benjamin Franklin told him he must go and see a woman who had
been struck by lightning. He found the person, by the superior direc
tion. * * * * His hand was placed upon hers by the same
power. She then remarked to her husband, “ I can breathe easier.”
and she was very soon relieved from all pain.
But in this case, as not unfrequently occurs with others, Mr. Spear
took the pain himself, which continued about two hours. As further
testimony to the above case, Mrs. Tenny, of Georgetown, Mass., may
be referred to.
On another occasion, Mr. S. C. Hewitt, as he writes and has person
ally confirmed, called, with Rev. Mr. W., to see some remarkable dia
grams, which Mr. Spear’s hand, by the same involuntary power,
executed.
They were then introduced to each other, and seated near together.
While they were in conversation, Mr. Spear’s hand rose, as he sup
posed, to take that of Mr. W.; but his forefinger was placed on Mr.
W.’s head, where it remained several minutes. During the time, the
question was asked, “ What name do phrenologists give that part of the
brain ?”
Answer. “ Ideality.”
To which Mr. W. replied, “ That is the leading element of my mind.
The love of the ideal and the beautiful.”
This remark led the company to suppose the movement was meant
�53
simply to signify that fact; but, when the finger was removed, Mr. W.
remarked that when he came in he had a severe pain in both sides of
the head, in precisely the region where the finger rested. Mr. Spear
then asked,
“How does your head feel now?”
“ The pain is all gone," was the reply.”
In this instance, Mr. Spear’s hand had taken the pain, which, how
ever, passed away in a few minutes.
[For the full detail of these and other cases, see Murray’s “Mes
sages. By S. C. Hewitt.”]
Now, the fact of relieving the pain might be accounted for on what
are called mesmeric principles; but that will not account for the intel
ligent directing power, which, in these, as in all other cases, is entirely
foreign to Mr. Spear.
No. 6.
Testimony oflto class VII. x Cure of Mrs. Rhodes, of Lynn,
Mass. The following was given to me personally:
My wife had been confined to her bed nine months — had been
under the care of two physicians, Dr. J. U. Nye four months, and Dr.
Eastman two months, but continued to grow worse. She had lost the
use of her limbs, the muscles of her arms being so contracted as to draw
her hands up nearly to her face. Her legs were drawn up in a similar
manner, and her hips drawn out of their socket-joints. The lower ver
tebra had been split and displaced in child-birth. She had the spine
complaint, was dropsical, and greatly afflicted with darting neuralgic
pains in all parts of her system. She only prayed for death to relieve
her sufferings. The neighbors all thought she could live but a short
time.
This was her situation when Mr. John M. Spear was called to see
her by me (she having no faith in him, or in spiritualism). Mr. Spear
described her disease, and told her what to do. She obeyed him, and,
though she has taken no medicine, she is better now than she has
before been for ten years, being able to do all her work, and walk two
miles without difficulty. A few days after Mr. Spear came to see her,
on Sunday night, her arms were drawn down; she was taken from the
bed to a chair with her bed-clothes about her; she used her arms very
freely, dressed herself, and walked about the room — the family all
being present, and called in the neighbors (Mr. George Summers,
Mr. E. A. Summers and wife, and ten others). The vertebra above
referred to was replaced by the unseen agency, and likewise her hip
�54
joints by the same. During these three surgical operations (each of
which was performed at different times) she distinctly felt the impres.
sion of unseen hands about the parts operated upon.
Boston, April 25th, 1854.
Benjamin A. Rhodes.
No. 7. Testimony of 6 to class VII. Mrs. Semantha Mettler, of Hart
ford, Conn.
Testimony of Deacon Silas Mosman, of Cabotville. — Be it
known that my daughter Mary, now twenty-two years old, has, for
about three years past, been mostly confined to her bed, and unable to
walk alone. About the middle of July last, she lost all power of the
organs of speech, and a few days after was deprived of her eye-sight,
becoming entirely blind, with no power even to raise her eyelids. All
possible means have been used for her relief; she has been attended by
twelve or thirteen physicians, some of them being of the highest order
and skill. She continued in about the same condition, changing only
for the worse; and was finally told that she could never be any better.
By this time we had almost despaired of any relief; but, through a
kind providence, we noticed a letter in one of the Springfield papers
respecting the claims and powers of Mrs. Mettler, the clairvoyant, in
healing and restoring the sick. We immediately applied to her, and,
after several attempts, we were fortunate in getting her to make us a
visit. On the evening of the above date she called, made a clairvoyant
examination of Marv’s case, and prescribed for her. The next day,
Mrs. M. called again, and by manipulations quieted her a good deal.
On the next Wednesdav she called a third time to see her, and in
about half an hour, with nothing but her own hands, she succeeded, to
the joy of all, in opening her eyes, and restoring her sight and
SPEECH! The next day Mrs. Mettler called again, and, to our
astonishment, she triumphantly put the case beyond all question, by
making my daughter walk entirely alone, which she had not done for
three years. Such are the facts in this most remarkable case. Mary
continues to see, talk and walk; and, for all we know, she must be
restored to her former good health.
Silas Mosman.
Cabotville, Jan. 9, 1850.
Testimony of Mr. S. Pease.
This is to certify that I have been suffering from an extreme weak
ness of the lungs and chest; a great shortness of breath, produced
�55
from what one physician termed adhesion of the lungs, though others
were not able to determine what the real difficulty was. Although
under medical skill and treatment, my difficulties seemed to increase;
my case continued to grow alarming, as I had already been suffering
for over two years, and unable to do scarcely anything, or get any re
lief. At this stage of my difficulties, I made up my mind that there
was no help for me; this was also the opinion of the physician. [Here
he mentions the circumstances of calling on Mrs. Mettler, and says:]
Without the least faith, I ventured to have her, in her clairvoyant
state, explore my then hopeless condition, which she did with the most
perfect accuracy, pointing out facts almost impossible to believe without
a previous knowledge of them. *
*
* She then succeeded in
affecting me psychologically, and in a few moments caused me to
breathe as free as any one. My lungs felt strong and easy; hope
revived. I then commenced taking her prescriptions, and following her
directions. Soon after I commenced her treatment, I took the worst
and most prostrating cold that man could ever be afflicted with; yet,
under her treatment, with the cold upon my lungs, I felt better and
stronger than before, though all the neighbors thought it impossible for
me to live.
But here I am, in less than four months, under her treatment,
restored. I am now able to do any kind of work, and can walk as far
in a day as any other person.
I know a great many, in this and other neighborhoods, that have
been under her treatment. Cases that seemed to baffle all ordinary skill
by the regular physicians have been restored by this lady’s wonderful
and mysterious power.
N. B. This testimony is given of my own free will, unsolicited on
her part. I give it as a duty I owe Mrs. Mettler, as well as to the
public.
M. S. Pease.
Granby, Mass., October, 1850.
Taken from a Statement published in the “Hartford Times."
My daughter, some three years since, became afflicted with inflamma
tion in her eyes, produced at first, as we suppose, by getting a piece of
time in one of them. This inflammation continued to increase until both
eyes became greatly inflamed, depriving her almost entirely of her sight.
She then took cold, and this increased the inflammation, with renewed
distress and sufferings. [Here follows a statement of the case under
�56
the hands of three successive physicians, one for three months, the
others for “ some time,” the case growing worse all the while. He says:]
During the attendance of these physicians, there was a spot or felon
upon the eye, which was continually increasing; and the inflammation
became so extreme that it was with great difficulty that she could
distinguish one person from another. She could scarcely open her
eyelids, and that only in the dark. Of course, now, all hope for her
restoration was at an end, and thus she remained suffering intensely.
Finally, through the persuasion of a kind friend, as a last resort, we
took her to Mrs. Mettler, on the 21st of May last. Mrs. Mettler, while
in the clairvoyant state, gave a perfect and minute detail of the causes
of her complaint, and then prescribed for her; and, to our utter
astonishment, after the application of her prescription, in less than two
weeks she could see quite well, improving almost as if by miracle; and
in less than four weeks she could see to read, and has continued so
ever since.
The cry of humbug is a miserable substitute for facts, especially
when facts are daily multiplying in our own city, to say nothing of
what is occurring all over the wide world.
Almost daily I hear of some poor sufferer relieved or restored by
this lady’s powers. She seems to have all the worst cases to attend,
after they have passed through the physicians’ hands.
Hartford, Dec. 13, 1852.
George Staples.
Bridgeport, April, 1852.
I hereby certify that I had been troubled for several years with
ulcerations in my throat, caused at first by slight colds, inducing a
disease which is generally called quinsy. * * At length it became
a seated bronchial affection, and continued in a constant state of ulcer
ation for several months, baffling all the skill of the physicians, and
almost the last power of endurance in the sufferer. * * Finally, as
a last resort, by the desire of my friends I was persuaded to consult
Mrs. Mettler. I soon obtained relief from her prescription, and my
throat has never ulcerated once since the first application of the
remedies proposed by her. I am now happy in declaring myself in the
full enjoyment of physical health and mental harmony, with the fullest
assurance that the weak things of the earth do sometimes confound
the wise. May the life of this good woman long be preserved, as her
work is an exemplification of the angels’ mission to suffering humanity.
Eliza C. Leeds.
�57
Cure of Joseph Haight.
It is well known to my friends that I am subject to a disease which
may properly be termed an inflammatory action of the heart. Those
attacks have been so severe that many times I have longed for that
release of soul, which is commonly termed death. All applications of
medical skill have only seemed to aggravate the difficulty; and, for sev
eral years past, my disease has bid defiance to all strictly professional
means of relief. After having sunk so low as to be almost beyond the
reach of hope, I applied to Mrs. Mettler, whose powers and sympathies
are so widely known, and obtained from her the relief I had long
despaired of. * * * * A more wonderful event than this, per
haps, is not recorded in the annals of medicine. * * * * The
relief from my intense suffering appeared truly miraculous.
Bridgeport, April 2, 1853.
Joseph Haight.
The following is a very severe case of a child being burned.
writer says:
The
We had two physicians in attendance, but without much effect. The
case had become one of long standing; and his sufferings were
approaching a fearful crisis. * * * * We are grateful to Mrs,
Mettler for her kindness in restoring our little boy; for we know that
she has been the instrument of saving his life.
William Dibble.
Darien, Ct., May, 1852.
These cases are taken from the “ Biograghy of Mrs. Semantha Met
tler,” by Frances H. Green. They are by no means the most remark
able, but we selected them on account of the directness of the testimony,
and the brevity with which they could be stated. In all these cases,
Mrs. Mettler has given prescriptions; but there are many cases of
her direct and immediate cure of very malignant diseases, simply by
“ laying on the hands.”
It may be asked What has all this to do with spirits ? Truly, I have
not related that part of these or other experiences which put it beyond
a doubt that she, as she firmly believes, is assisted by spirits. But, if
any one will take the trouble to make himself acquainted with the
facts, he will have no doubt upon the subject. I cannot forbear to
quote the following words, spoken by Mr. Spear under the spirit influ
ence :
6
�58
On the 29th of January, 1853, Mr. Spear was requested by a spirit
communication to go to Hartford. He set off immediately ; arrived in
Hartford at half-past eight, when he was distinctly impressed to go to
the house of Mrs. Mettler. There he, in the superior condition, gave a
very beautiful and impressive address to Mrs. Mettler, relative to her
mission, &c. This address closed by saying :
“ This medium has been commissioned to wisely instruct this woman
for a high purpose. There is to open before this woman a new and
beautiful labor. At ten o’clock, to-morrow, the purpose of his mission
to this place will be unfolded. Let this woman be in the region of the
Tranquillities at that hour.”
At the appointed time, Mr. Spear made the following address :
“ Father of fathers, and Deity of deities, thy wills be done on the
earths as they are done in the Heaven of heavens.
“ This fondly loved one shall be consecrated to the Charities. Thou,
Lcuceforth, shalt be called Charity. That shall be thy denomination.
“ Thou shalt say to the sufferer on his couch, Arise, and it shall be
so; thou shalt say to the maimed, Be thou whole, and it shall be so;
thou shalt say to the blind, Open thou thy closed eyes, and this also
shall be; thou shalt say to the dead, Arise, and it shall come to pass.
Thou shalt pass through the humble vale, over the lofty^nountains, over
rivers and seas, and the elements shall be at thy command. Naught
shall disturb thy sweet placidity. No want shalt thou know.
“ This open hand shall bless others; and thou shalt thyself be blest.
This foot shall go and come. Thou shalt mount up like a bird of the lofti
est flight, and thou shalt never be wearied. Thou shalt ‘ go and come,
nor ever fear to die, till thou art called home.’ Happy shall they be
who behold thy sweet countenance. Blessed are they on whom thy
hand rests. Receive now this blessed power.
“ This hand shall be unfolded to dispense blessings far and wide.
Blessings shall descend upon thee. In blessing others, thou thyself
shalt be blest. Thou shalt go on in a mysterious way, dispensing
blessings. It is done.”
No. 8. Testimony oflto class VII.
From the “New Era”
Rutland, Vt., April 18, 1853.
Last summer a lady in New Hampshire was severely afflicted with
a cancer on the face. She had been in the habit of applying a great
variety of things with a view to its cure, but she grew worse continu
ally. [Here follows the direction of the spirits, and the manner of
�59
getting it, which was entirely unsolicited:] Soon after this, says the
writer, I visited the lady, and gave her the above information. She
very readily consented to a trial, and in less than three months, to the
surprise of all, she was thoroughly cured.
Charles C. York.
I hereby certify that I have been afflicted with poor health for three
years. The last year, I have been confined for weeks, in such a con
dition that I could not be turned in my bed for two weeks at a time.
My doctor said I had a tumor in my side. It appeared to grow daily,
causing great pain, — so much so, that, for the last year, I could not
walk or ride a mile without making myself sick. My doctor would do
something to relieve me' for a few days, but said I was liable to die
any day. Last February, C. C. York, a healing or clairvoyant medium,
of Claremont, N. H., came to this place, by spirit direction. I called
on him, at the suggestion of my husband, but without faith. The
said medium was immediately put into the unconscious state without
any visible agency, and described the feelings I had experienced for
many years, and told the cause of the difficulty, and said that I could
be cured. He then prescribed for me, and I made a trial. The tumor
disappeared in less than two weeks. In one week I walked five miles
in a day without pain. In ten days I rode in a carriage fifteen miles
and back in one day without inconvenience or distress, and am now in
good health.
There are others also who are receiving the same blessings here,
through this medium. I most cheerfully recommend him to the
afflicted.
Pamelia A. Nichols.
Reading, Mass., March 30, 1854.
I hereby certify that the within statement of my wife, Pamelia A.
Nichols, is true.
William Nichols.
Reading, Mass., March 30, 1854.
Another Cure. — I hereby certify, that my health has been very poor
for some years, with a general weakness, nervousness, neuralgia and
weak stomach; and all the remedies I tried only made me worse.
Since last December, I have been unable to sit up all day. The first
of this month, seeing Mrs. P. A. Nichols restored to health, I sent for
Doctor York. He called, and soon went into the clairvoyant state.
He described my feelings, told the cause of my difficulty, and said I
could be cured. I followed his directions, and I now can Sleep as
�60
usual. My food does not distress rue. I ean sit up and labor all day
without being nervous or in pain. I cheerfully recommend Doctor
York to the afflicted.
Mbs. Harriet Nelson.
Reading, Mass., March 30, 1854.
Case VIII.
No. 1. Testimony of Mr. Garrison.
However much any one may differ in opinion from Mr. Garrison,
all must admit his candor and unimpeachable veracity.
[From the Liberator of March 3, 1854.]
We are often privately asked, what we think of the “Spiritual
Manifestations,” so called, and whether we have had any opportunities
to investigate them.
When we first heard of the “Rochester knockings,” we supposed
(not personally knowing the persons implicated) that there might be
some collusion in that particular case, or, if not, that the phenomena
would ere long elicit a satisfactory solution, independent of all spiritual
agency. As the manifestations have spread from house to house, from
city to city, from one part of the country to the other, across the
Atlantic into Europe, till now the civilized world is compelled to
acknowledge their reality, however diverse in accounting for them, —
as these manifestations continue to increase in variety and power, so
that all suspicion of trick or imposture becomes simply absurd and
preposterous, — and as every attempt to find a solution for them in
some physical theory relating to electricity, the odic force, clairvoyance,
and the like, has thus far proved abortive, — it becomes. every intelli
gent mind to enter into an investigation of them with candor and fair
ness, as opportunity may offer, and to bear such testimony in regard to
them as the facts may warrant, no matter what ridicule it may excite
on the part of the uninformed or sceptical.
As for ourselves, most assuredly we have been in no haste to jump
to a conclusion in regard to phenomena so universally diffused, and of
so extraordinary a character. For the last three years, we have kept
pace with nearly all that has been published on the subject; and we
have witnessed, at various times, many surprising “ manifestations; ”
and our conviction is, that they cannot be accounted for on any other
theory than that of spiritual agency. This theory, however, is not
unattended with discrepancies, difficulties and trials. It is certain
that, if it be true, there are many deceptive spirits, and that the apos-
�61
tolic injunction to “believe not every spirit,” but to try them in every
possible way, is specially to be regarded, or the consequences may prove
very disastrous.
We might write a pretty long essay on what we have seen and heard,
touching this matter; but this we reserve for some other occasion.
We shall now merely describe some of the phenomena which we wit
nessed in New York, during our recent visit to that city.
The medium, in this instance, was Mrs. Brown, formerly Miss Fish,
of Rochester. The circle was composed of six gentlemen and four
ladies. The table was of ample dimensions, so as to accommodate the
party without inconvenience. We sat around it in the usual manner
(the hands of each individual resting upon the table), and engaged in
social chit-chat. While waiting for some demonstrations from the
invisible world, we had our right foot patted as by a human hand, and
the right leg of our pantaloons strongly pulled, by some unseen agency.
This was done repeatedly, though we said nothing at the time ; but,
thinking it might be possible that the foot of some one of the company
might undesignedly be in contact with our own, we cautiously felt
around to ascertain if this were the case, but there was nothing tangi
ble ; and the moment we put our foot down, the same familiar tappings
and jerks followed. Still, we made no disclosure. Raps were then
distinctly heard, and the alphabet was called for. Letter by letter, it
was rapped out that the medium must put her feet in the custody of
one of the party, and then we were told to wait for demonstrations.
This was evidently done to convince every one present that the medium
had nothing to do with the phenomena, by way of fraud or collusion;
and, during the entire sitting (a protracted one), before any remarka
ble feat was performed, the medium was invariably ordered to take
such a position as to render it clearly impossible for her to be privy to
it. The presence of several spirits was indicated during the evening,
and satisfactory tests were made; but the most communicative and
efficient one purported to be that of “ Jesse Hutchinson.” It was he
who had been playing bo-peep with us under the table ; and, now that
the medium was secured, to the satisfaction of all present, he renewed
his salutations, not only to us personally, but to nearly every one of
the circle. The ladies had their dresses, and the gentlemen their panta
loons, pulled, and their feet patted, in the most emphatic manner.
Heavy raps were now made on the floor; and, on being requested to
that effect, “Jesse” beat a march, — it seemed to us Washington’s
march, — in admirable time, and in the most spirited manner; no
*
6
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drummer could have done it more skilfully. He was then asked to
beat time, while the company joined in singing several tunes, — “The
Old Granite State,” among others, — which he did to perfection. He
then spelt out the following communications by the alphabet: “ I am
most happy, dear friends, to be able to give you such tangible evidence
of my presence. The good time has truly come. The gates of the
New Jerusalem are open, and the good spirits, made more pure by the
change of spheres, are knocking at the door of your souls.”
Isaac T. Hopper now indicated his presence to his daughter, who
was at the table, and made some physical demonstrations. His message,
as rapped out, was as follows : “ I am truly happy to echo back joy
and gladness from my happy home. Truth is bearing its way on glori
ously, and the subject of spiritualism will work miracles in the cause
of reform. My friends, the rock of prejudice begins to yield to the
hammer of truth; and, now, with the aid of good spirits, you can blast
it without the use of powder.” And he subsequently added, “I want
you to see that spirits have power to move matter.”
It was next rapped out, “ Put the bell under the table.” We, accord
ingly, took the bell (an ordinary table-bell), and put it down at our
feet. In a few moments, it was smartly rung by an unseen power, and
then fell to the floor. This was done again and again,— the bell mak
ing the circuit of the table, and ringing so loudly that the servant-girl,
in an adjacent room, supposing she was needed, came in to inquire what
was wanted.
Next, a cane with a hooked handle was laid on the carpet, under the
table. Immediately, it struck the table violently, and rubbed along
the under surface its entire length. It then fell to the floor, and
traversed over and under the feet of several of the party, like a living
;Snake, — in one or two instances, the foot being involuntarily lifted to
enable it to pass under. Its movements were exceedingly curious. At
one -time, we caught hold of the handle as it protruded itself by our
side, and .endeavored to pull it from under the table ; but the resist
ance was as strong as though another hand was grasping it at the
opposite end.
We were now directed to put several things under the table, observe
how they were placed, and wait for results. When told to look, we
found that a penknife was missing, nor could it be discovered by the
most careful search. On again resuming our seats, we were told to
take another look; and, behold! there was the penknife, precisely
where it had been originally placed !
�63
Next, we were directed to lay some writing-paper, with, a pencil upon
it, under the table. This was done ; and, in a few moments, on being
told to look, we found the word “Jesse” written upon it in a scrawling
hand, as though made with great difficulty. The same experiment was
again made, and “ Isaac T. H.” (Hopper), was written very legibly, and
in a different hand. A third time this was done, and “ Mary Jane ”
was recorded, — the name of a young lady who had been communi
cating with a gentleman present. The first two autographs we have
in our possession.
We now made two requests of “ Jesse,” to convince us yet more
strongly of his presence. The first was, to press our right foot firmly
to the floor, and to make loud raps directly under it. This was quickly
done, the foot being grasped as by a mortal hand, and vibrating to the
raps thus strangely made. The second was, if possible, to take us by
the right hand with his own, so as to make the touch palpable beyond
a doubt. Keeping the hand carefully in custody between our knees as
we sat, — the hands of all the company, including those of the medium,
being on the table, — we, in a few moments, had it patted, first on one
side, then on the other, briskly, and repeatedly, as if by another hand,
having a negative feeling, as though there was no warmth in it, but
natural in every other respect. For the general gratification, the same
thing was done to others of the party.
How shall demonstrations like these be accounted for, except on the
hypothesis of spirit-agency ? If we cannot positively affirm that Isaac
T. Hopper and Jesse Hutchinson were present on that occasion, we are,
at least, prepared to declare, as our own conviction, as well as that of
the entire company, we believe, that invisible spirits, not of this mun
dane sphere, performed the phenomena we have thus briefly narrated to
our readers.
Note. — I, with a sceptical friend, took particular pains to call on
Mr. Garrison, in reference to his experience, when he stated so many
particulars, and other important facts, as to dispel every possible
doubt.
No. 2. Testimony oflto classes I and V. Statement of Adin Ballou.
Extracted from his “ Spirit Manifestations.'"
“ I have heard the time and metre of tunes beaten out with the utmost
accuracy, and by several rappers in unison, not only while the tune was
being played or sung, but afterwards, without accompaniment; and I
�64
am as certain that these sounds were not made by any conscious mortal
agency as I am of the best authenticated facts in the common transac
tions of life.
“ I have seen tables and light-stands move about in the most astonish
ing manner, by what purported to be the same invisible agency, with
only the gentle and passive resting of the hands or fingers of the
medium upon the table. Also, many distinct movings of such objects
by request, without the touch of the medium at all.
“ I have known these invisibles, by request, to write their names with
a common plumbago-pencil on a clean sheet of paper, half a dozen of
them, each in a different hand. [He states the circumstances of 'their
writing, holding the pen themselves, and concludes it with] This (writing
without hands) was repeatedly tested with the same results, under cir
cumstances putting all suspicion of fraud and jugglery entirely at rest.”
■ [There are several other more convincing things which he states he
has seen, but they are of such a nature as to require too much room
for a place here.]
No. 3. Testimony of 1 to class I. Statement of Mr. William
1
Bugbee.
[I give the following statement as a specimen of many which I could
present from the most reliable persons. Mr. Bugbee lives in Roxbury,
and, so far as I can learn, is a man of irreproachable reputation. I
give his statement as I took it down at the time, and to which he
authorized me to attach his name.]
I have seen tables move, beat time to tunes, move contrary to my
request, when I know no person was touching them.
Mrs. Newton [whose testimony I have given] described my son, who
had been long at sea ; told every particular about him, all which were
true. She said, among other things, “he is cross-eyed;” which is true.
She said, “ he has a sore on his leg,” which she also described. This
we knew nothing of till a long time after, when he came home ; then
he confirmed the whole by showing the scar. He was greatly aston
ished that we could know anything about it. Mrs. Newton could have
no means of knowing that we had a son.
My daughter, who became a medium, said in the spiritual state, on the
19th of March, “ I see the ship in which is my brother crossing the
line.” This also proved true.
William Bugbee.
Harmony Hall, Boston, May 11, 1854.
�65
Case IX.
No. 1.
A Test.
About the first of January, 1854, the spirit of Laura F. Stevens
spelled out by raps, “ Your friend, Ellen Cronan, is dead.” When
did she die? “Jan. 1st, 1854.” What was her disease and age?
“ Her disease was lung fever; her age, fifteen years the 17th of March.”
Where did she reside at the time of her death ? “ In Lawrence, Mass.,
at No. 53 Linwell-st.” Do you know her father’s name ? “ It is Sam,
uel W. Cronan. His business is brick-making.”
Mary E. Kendall (the medium) had for a few weeks attended school
with Ellen Cronan in South Boston, six years since. Mary was then
eight years of age. This was all we ever knew of Ellen Cronan, or
any of her folks, and did not know where they lived.
But we directed the following letter in accordance with the directions
above given:
“ Sir : I have learned that your daughter Ellen is dead. Will you
please give me the particulars concerning her death, and direct to D.
C. Kendall, No. 1 India Wharf. I am very anxious to know all about
it.
“ Boston.”
A few weeks after, a reply was received, as follows :
“ Lawrence, Mass., Jan. 25, 1854.
“ Miss Kendall : You will excuse me for not answering your letter
before. We are preparing to remove from this place, and are very
busy at present. Your very singular request, for me to give you the
whole particulars of my daughter’s death, immediately led me to sup
pose that you were what is termed a ‘ spirit rapper.’ But I will give
them to you, as you wish it. She died New-Year’s night, aged fifteen
years. Her birthday would have been on March 17; disease, lung
fever. My business is brick-making; but, as it has not been very
pressing lately, and was not, especially when your letter arrived, I
began searching for a medium. I found one, and the following words
were spelled out: ‘ Dear Father, I requested a spirit to send to you
for the particulars of my death, through the mediumship of Mary E.
Kendall, in South Boston, to convince you, and to give her a test.
Direct your letter to her, and this wiH be a test for you.’ I shall
have to become a believer in this, which I have so unmercifully con
�G6
demned and ridiculed the idea of, if this test be true ; for this reason,
I have not directed as you desired me to. Most respectfully,
“ 53 Linwell-st.
Samuel AV. Cronan.”
Note. — Mrs. Kendall and her daughter both testify to the above,
and have the letter received from Mr. Cronan, which I have seen.
J. H. Fowler.
Last Tuesday afternoon, immediately after I had taken my seat in
the school-room, my hand was moved, and wrote, “ You have lost your
bracelet; you will find it in the lower hall, broken in pieces.” This
was the first I knew of its being gone. I immediately went below, and
found it as was stated.
Mary E. Kendall.
South Boston, May 18th, 1854.
Note. — I received the above statement from Miss Kendall, and
saw the pieces of the bracelet referred to.
J. H. Fowler.
No. 2. Spirit delivers a Message. From “ Spiritual Telegraph,” March
12, 1853.
S. B. Brittan.—Dear Sir: On the evening of Feb. 2d, 1852,
while a circle was convened at our residence in Lowell, my wife
inquired if Louisa (our deceased daughter) was with us, and was
answered in the affirmative. In reply to the question, “Are you often
with Susan ” (our only surviving daughter, who was then travelling
with her friends in Georgia), the spirit answered that she was. My
wife then requested the spirit to “ go and stay with Susan, and keep
her from all harm while she was away.” To which Louisa replied by
rapping that she would. This, it should be remembered, was on the
evening of Feb. 2d. In about one week from that time, we received
a letter from Susan, dated Atlanta, Ga., Feb. 3d, 1852, in which the
following fact was stated. “ Last night we had a sitting, and Louisa
came and rapped for the alphabet, and spelled out to me this sentence,
namely, ‘ Mother wants me to come and stay with you, and keep you
from all harm while away from home.'
Louisa.”
Thus you see that some invisible agent, claiming to be my daughter,
received the communication in Lowell, Mass., and delivered it, word
for word, in the town of Atlanta, Georgia, and all within the space of
an hour.
B. McFarland.
�67
jVo. 3. Testimony of Rev. D. F. Goddard, Boston.
This is to certify that, during a long investigation of the modern
phenomena which are now attracting attention in our own country and
in the old, I have repeatedly seen my own table, in my own room, to
which I know there is no nice machinery affixed for purposes of decep
tion, without any contact whatever of earthly kind, raised, tipped,
moved about the room, as if a strong man was there at work. Also,
a pianoforte played upon in the same way, without mortal, contact, pro
ducing most beautiful music, — an ocean piece, in which a storm was
represented succeeded by a calm. These phenomena occurred in the
presence of several other individuals of both sexes, all of whom saw,
and all of whom are ready to testify. I have also received from a
medium, who never saw me before, and knew nothing of my family,
the fact of my father’s death, his name, and a perfect fac-simile of his
hand-writing; and this when I was not expecting such hand-writing,
and could not have possibly imitated it, without a copy, in the labor
of a three months.
D. F. Goddard.
Boston, May 21, 1854.
No. 4. From the “New Era."
New Orleans, March 31, 1854.
Brother Hewitt. — Dear Sir : It is with much pleasure that I
take this opportunity to give you a description of the manifestations as
witnessed by myself and twenty-four others, at Jonathan Koon’s spirit
room, in Athens County, Ohio, on the evenings of the 17th, 18th and
19th of February last, in order that you may publish the statement
in your paper, if you wish, with the use of some of our names, as you
may think proper.
On the following evening, we had another sitting, when they beat a
march on the drum, and then carried the tambourine all around over
our heads, playing on it the while. They then dropped it on the table.
Then they took the triangle from the wall, and carried it all around, as
they did the other instruments, for some time. We could only hear
the dull sound of the steel; then would peal forth the full ring of the
instrument. They let this fall on the table also. After this, they
spoke through the trumpet to all, stating that they were glad to see
them. Then they went to a gentleman who was playing on the violin,
and took it out of his hand up into the air, all around, thrumming the
�68
strings, and playing as well as mortals can do, sounding very sweetly.
They soon returned it to its owner again, and then they brought the
accordeon out, and put it on the other table, and played on it; but, one
key being out of order, they took up the trumpet, and said they did
not like bad instruments to play upon. They now played most sweetly
on the trumpet; then took the harp, and brought both into tune, and
played on both instruments, and at the same time sung with some four
voices, sounding like female voices, and which, indeed, made the room
swell with melody.
After this, they made their hands visible again, and took paper, and
brought it out on the other table, and commenced writing slowly, when
one of the visitors asked them if they could not write faster; the hand
then moved so fast we could hardly see it go, but all could hear the
pencil move over the paper for some five minutes or so. When it was
done, the spirit took up the trumpet and spoke, saying the communica
tion was for friend Pierce; and at the same time the hand came up to
him, and gave the paper into his hand. Now the spirit said, if friend
Pierce would put his hand on the table, they would shake hands with
him for a testimony to the world, as he could do much good with such
a fact while on his spiritual mission. He then put his hand on the
table by their request, and the hand came up to him, and took hold of
his fingers, and shook them. Then it went away, but soon came back
again, and patted his hand some minutes, then left again. Now it
came back the third time, and, taking his whole hand for some five
minutes, he examined it all over, and found it as natural as a human
hand, even to the nails on the fingers. He traced the hand up as far
as the wrist, and found nothing any further than that point. The hand
did not feel as warm as a human hand, but it did not feel of a chilly
coldness. It remained with him until he was satisfied. Then it shook
him heartily by the full hand, and disappeared some ten minutes.
After the hand had gone, he felt a very queer sensation on the back
of his hand, where the thumb of the spirit-hand had been.
On the same evening, two spirits spoke through Mr. Pierce — one
on the first of the evening, and another the last part — to some fifty
persons.
You are at liberty to make such use of our names, private or public,
as you may think proper. Yours, truly,
D. Hasteller, Pittsburg.
Lewis Dugdale, Farmer, Ohio.
A. P. Pierce, Philadelphia. Chas. C. Stillman, Marion, Ohio.
H. F. Partridge, Wheeling, Va.
�69
No. 5. Testimony of 1 to class I.
I hereby certify that, in the month of January last, while in the
office of Mr. Cummings (No. 40 State-st., Boston), I was lifted, by
what I believe spirit agency, from the floor, and placed on a table.
Amos Cummings and wife, George Clapp, and Miss Susan Bayly, all
of Boston, each of whom were present on the occasion, are ready to
certify to the above fact.
I further certify, that, soon after this, while in the house of Mr.
Andrew J. Page, in Danvers, I was again lifted from the floor to the
table, by the same power. On this occasion were present Mr. Cum
mings and wife, and Mr. Clapp and William D. Emerson, Mr. Page
and wife, James Page, of Lowell, and many others.
Boston, May 2, 1854.
Mary H. Ide, East Boston.
Edward P. Fowler, N. Y.
No. 6. Testimony of 1 to classes III. and, IV; of 10 to class V; of
8 to classes I. and II.
The experience of Mr. Fowler is given at length in the Telegraph,
and in Judge Edmonds’ “ Spiritualism,” from which we take the follow
ing testimony:
The phenomena are so remarkable that it requires much direct testi
mony to substantiate them. This we shall present. Mr. Fowler says:
“ On this night (Nov. 21, 1851), after extinguishing my light, and
before getting in bed, I noticed a bright light over my bed, which I
should judge was a foot in diameter. At this I was not surprised,
because I had been accustomed to see such lights, with the exception
that this was brighter than usual. I proceeded to bed, where I had
lain, probably, five minutes, when I heard footsteps in the room.
“ My face was, at that time, turned towards the wall. I looked
around toward the window, and beheld a form, apparently that of a
man forty years old, and a little more than six feet high, walking
from the centre of the room toward window No. 1 ” [as given in the
diagram], “ where he met another man, not so tall, who seemed to have
come through that window. I did not see him come through, but first
saw him when one or two feet from the window, on the inside. They
stopped near the window, and spoke with each other for a few minutes,
and then came to my bed-side, and the taller one said to me, ‘ Arise and.
take thy pen, for I will dictate.’ ”
7
�70
Mr. Fowler did not arise, but states that these two spirits went to
the table, where they were joined by a third and a fourth, coming in at
the window, as the others. The fourth he believes to be Franklin.
He continues : “ After the four had consulted together for the space
of half an hour, the first and second one came to my bed-side, and
talked with me twenty-five or thirty minutes. I, at the time, fully un
derstood what was said. The two again went to the table, and con
versed with the other two. I could hear them talk, but could not
understand their language.
o
O
“ After staying three hours, from twelve till three, they left, appar
ently going out of the same window at which they came in. They
seemed to disappear from my sight when about a foot from the window,
inside.
“ That I really had possession of my natural senses, I infer from the
following circumstances:
First, I had not been asleep when the scene commenced.
“ Second, The Brooklyn fire-bells, which were tolling for fire when I
went to bed, I could still hear; and, in the course of half an hour, the
City Hall bell, of New York, gave the alarm of fire, which the church
bells repeated. I heard the ‘ Rutgers Hose ’ go by the house, and the
adjacent church-bell toll the four hours, as I lay awake, namely, 12, 1,
2, 3 and 4 o’clock.”
At other interviews of this kind, Mr. Fowler states that the spirits
have written with apparatus of their own ; he has seen them writing,
and produced the manuscripts.
The most remarkable of these is copied into Vol. i. No. 9, of the
Spiritual Telegraph.
It was this motto, Peace, but not without Freedom, signed by
upwards of fifty distinguished names, in fac-similes of their writing
while on the earth.
*
* In the Telegraph, with the copy of this autographical manuscript, is the follow
ing statement, with the signatures, as here given.
We, the undersigned, believing that these are the signatures of the spirits them
selves, and fully concurring in the sentiment expressed, hereunto affix our names,
this twenty-fifth day of December, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.
John Gray,
Edward P. Fowler,
John F. Gray, M. D.,
William J. Baneb,
S. T. Fowler,
Mrs. Almira L. Fowler,
F. F. Cary,
Mrs. S. A. Partridge,
Mrs. Charlotte F. Wells,
Almon Roff,
Rorert T. Shannon,
Ward Cheney,
Daniel Minthorn,
Dr. R. T. Hallock,
Charles Partridge,
Mrs. Martha H. F. Baneb.
*
�71
In reference to this, Mr. Fowler says : « The original paper, contain
ing the autographs, I found upon my table, about three o’clock one
afternoon, on my return from business; the paper used being a sheet
of drawing-paper, which was incidentally left on my table, and which
I am sure was blank when I left my room in the forenoon. The suc
ceeding autographical manuscript, a representation of which was pub
lished, was executed in my room, on a piece of parchment, left on my
table, by direction of spirits, for that purpose. This was written on
during the night, while I was in my room asleep. I would add, that
many of the signatures on the parchment were entirely strange, having
never seen them before. I have also had several specimens of various
oriental languages, written in my room, on paper which I could identify
as my own, though the languages were unknown to me. These have
been written on, both when I have been in my room and when I have
been absent. Several of the languages referred to I had never seen,
prior to my acquaintance with them through these mystical manu
scripts ; and, of course, did not know what they were, until I had sub
mitted them to a linguist, who read them with facility.
“ The first one which I received was, as I am informed through the
kindness of Prof. Bush, a quotation from the Old Testament, written
in Hebrew. The execution of this occurred about three o’clock in the
afternoon, soon after I had returned from business. I was alone in my
room, when, through the sounds which then occurred in my presence,
I was requested to leave the room for the space of five minutes, during
which interval they (the spirits) promised an attempt to write.
“ I obeyed their request, and went into a room below, where sat my
sister. I told her what had transpired, and, at the expiration of five
minutes, we both ascended to my room. Instead of finding, as we con
jectured we should, some directions written in English, we discovered
this Hebrew quotation, the ink on the paper being still unabsorbed,
although after experiments proved that the ink of a hand heavier than
that in which the Hebrew was written would, on the same kind o?
paper, invariably dry in from two to three minutes.
“ That these writings have not been imposed upon me, I know, because
I had seen some of them written. I have seen them written in day
time, as well as in the night; and that I was in no ‘ abnormal mag
netic state’ I infer from the fact that my consciousness of the circum
stances of outward life remained unimpaired. The ringing of fire-bells,
moving of engines, the tolling of the bells at the ferry, the paddling
�72
of the boat, wheels, and various other noises, common to the city,
were no less distinctly heard than at other times.
That these writings were not perpetrated by myself, I have the
strongest proofs. First, I had never seen any specimens of the lan
guages in which most of the manuscripts were written, and, even to^he
present date, I have seen no other specimens of one or two of the lan
guages used. Second, that power which has communicated to us in our
circle, through the rappings and lifting of tables, professes to have per
formed this writing also.
E. P. Fowler.
New York, August, 1852.
As collateral testimonies to the above facts, and to the veracity of
E. P. Fowler, we submit the following extracts, omitting many par
ticular statements which tend to confirm the whole. First, statement
of facts by Mrs. Charles Partridge, taken from the minutes of the New
York circle.
Persons at the circle have been unexpectedly turned round in the
chairs in which they were sitting, and moved to and from the table.
Chairs and sofas have suddenly started from their positions against the
wall, and moved forward to the centre of the room, when they were
required in the formation of the circle. The persons in the circle have
each successively lifted his own side of the table, and the invisible
power has raised the opposite side correspondingly. Occasionally the
spirits have raised the table entirely, and sustained it in air, at a
distance of from one to three feet from the floor, so that all could
satisfy themselves that no person in the flesh was touching it. Lights
of various colors have been produced in dark rooms. A man has been
suspended in, and conveyed through, the air, a distance of fifty feet, or
more. The communications have been given in various ways, but
chiefly in writing, and by the rappings through the ordinary alphabet
ical mode.
At the close of the session held on the 17th of Nov., 1851, the
spirits, through the alphabet, and in their usual manner, said, “ We
wish to give you a sentence for you to find out and rememberwhen
the following was communicated: “ Debemos amar a todo el mundo aun
a nuestros enemigos." No person present on that occasion understood
a word of this language, but we were subsequently informed that it
was Spanish.
During the session on the 19th of January, 1852, the spirits signi
fied their desire to make a communication in Hebrew. Mr. Partridge
�73
asked who should call the alphabet, and received for answer, “ The
only person present who understands it, — George Bush.” Professor
Bush thereupon proceeded to repeat the Hebrew alphabet, and a com
munication in that language was received.
Many additional facts might be given to show that spirits communi
cate in various languages through E. P. Fowler, but the above will
suffice for the purposes of this statement.
We cannot allow the present occasion to pass without an expression
of the entire confidence and unqualified esteem with which Mr. Fowler
is regarded by the members of the New York circle, and by those who
know him generally. We have had an intimate personal acquaintance
with him for two years past, — some of us for a much longer period, —
and we have only known him as a high-minded and honorable young
man. From the beginning, he has steadily refused to accept the
slightest compensation for his time and services while employed in the
capacity of a medium; and we deem it but an act of simple justice
to Mr. F. to record the fact that, on all occasions, we have found him
entirely unassuming in his deportment, and eminently truthful in his
life. Signed,
K. T. Hallock, M. D.,
W. J. Baner,
J. T. Warner, M. D.,
John F. Gray, M. D.,
Almira L. Fowler,
Samuel T. Fowler.,
A. G. Hull, M. D.,
Mr. & Mrs. Charles Partridge.
Prof. Bush's Testimony. Extract from a letter to Mr. Brittan, dated,
New York, March 27, 1852.
Mr. Brittan : In compliance with your request, I.willingly make
a statement respecting the several communications in Hebrew, Arabic,
Bengalee, &c., which have been submitted to my inspection. Altogether,
the specimens are of an extraordinary character, such as I cannot well
convey by any verbal description.
Mr. E. P. Fowler, since I have become acquainted with him, does
not at all impress me as one who would knowingly practise deception
upon others, however he might possibly be imposed upon himself. He
certainly has no knowledge of the above languages, nor do I think it
likely that he is leagued in collusion with any one who has. A man who
is versed in these ancient and Oriental tongues would be, I think, but
little prone to lend himself as a party to a pitiful scheme of imposture.
It must, indeed, be admitted to be possible that Mr. Fowler may him
self have copied the extracts from printed books; but I can only say
*
7
�74
for myself taat, from the internal evidence, and from a multitude of
collateral circumstances, I am perfectly satisfied that he never did it.
In like manner I am equally confident that he, though the medium on
the occasion, had, consciously, nothing to do with a Hebrew communi
cation which was spelled out to me, in presence of a circle of very
respectable gentlemen, not one of whom, beside myself, had any knowl
edge of that language.
Signed,
Gr. Bush.
[In regard to these writings by E. P. Fowler, Prof. Bush says, in
another letter, published in Spiritual Telegraph, No. 45 :]
Your readers, Mr. Editor, will have seen that I assume no special
patronage of the present or any similar assorted phenomena. It is of
no consequence to me what verdict, in the end, may be pronounced
upon them. * * I accept, on the whole, what is termed the spiritual
theory of these phenomena. But I stop short with this concession.
When we come to the details, — to the identification of persons, to
the subject-matter of what is communicated from this source, — I
acknowledge, with all frankness, that I make precious little of it. For
the most part, it directly contradicts,what I believe to be true, on
evidence to which my calmest and clearest reason assigns a vastly
higher authority ; and therefore, while others will have every confidence
in making these responses oracular, with me they are “ mere leather and
prunella.”
[In this letter he reaffirms his former testimony, using this lan
guage :]
I only know that here are remarkable specimens of writing in dif
ferent tongues, of which young Fowler is ignorant in his ordinary
state, and in the penning of which I, for one, am satisfied that he had no
conscious agency.
QEOt Bush.
Note. — The languages in which the spirits have communicated,
through the mediumship of E. P. Fowler, are Sanscrit, Arabic, Hebrew.
Bengalee, Persian, French, Spanish, Malay and Chinese. I have given
this testimony to a very great length, because the phenomena are of
such a remarkable nature as to seem to justify it. If any one still
doubts the spiritual cause, they have only to examine the whole amount
of testimony given in the Spiritual Telegraph, in the Shekinah, in
Judge Edmonds’ work on Spiritualism, and in various other works on
the subject, in which an overwhelming amount of testimony in regard
to this case may be found, — testimony to which nothing in the New
Testament can compare.
�75
Statement of Martha H. Baner.
Mr. Brittan. — Dear Sir : In relation to the writing in various
languages, made in E. P. Fowler’s room, and said to have been pro
duced by spirits, I am free to say that I have been cognizant of the
execution of some of said manuscripts under circumstances physically
precluding the possibility of their having been done by any human
agency. * *
For the last three years, he has lived in the same house with my
self, and spent much time in the same room; thus giving me an almost
unlimited opportunity to discover any deception, had he been disposed
to attempt anything of the kind, or to detect any hallucination, had any
existed. His moral character I consider to be in every respect unim
peachable.
Signed,
Martha H. Baner.
Statement of Almira L. Fowler.
* * He (Mr. E. P. Fowler) has hitherto sustained an unblemished
reputation for honesty and veracity, and enjoyed the confidence of all
acquainted with him. * * I have evidence sufficient to my own mind
that he had no agency in the writing of the different languages executed
in his room, and purporting to be the products of spirits.
Philadelphia, Sept. 24, 1852.
Signed,
Almira L. Fowler.
�76
Case X.
No. 1. Testimony of 1 to classes I. and V. Testimony of Dr. G. T.
Dexter, New York, taken from his Introduction to “ Spiritualism^
It is now nearly two years since “ spirit rappings ” first attracted
my notice. My unbelief was so great, that I was ready to denounce
the whole subject as one of the greatest humbugs of the day. * * *
I made arrangements with a friend to invite to my house a medium of
considerable powers, and thus to have an opportunity of careful inves
tigation, where I knew there could be no collusion, and the chances for
deception were very few. Previous to this time, about the 10th of
Sept., 1851,1 had never witnessed any spiritual manifestations, neither
had any member of my family been present at a circle; both they and
myself were entirely ignorant of the whole subject.
[He then states that a circle, composed of the persons above referred
to, was formed at his house, with the results of which he was not satis
fied, and invited the medium to stop another day. While at breakfast,
the next morning, they heard raps about the table, &c.]
Immediately after breakfast, we formed a circle, at which were pres
ent myself and all the members of my family, the friend I have before
mentioned, and another friend, who could not be present on the eve
ning previous. The two gentlemen friends and myself were positive
unbelievers, and the others — Mrs. D. and my two daughters — were
in the same catalogue. One of my daughters was about fourteen years
of age, and the other was not yet nine years old. They had no idea
of the modus operandi of spirit on the medium, either by hearing or
by sight.
*
*
*
After we had remained sitting, with the raps heard in every direc
tion, * * * it was written out by the medium, “ Let Mr. G. go into
the other room.” Mr. Gr. went as directed. Now, my youngest
daughter (not being interested) appeared somewhat tired of the affair
before this direction was given ; but, as soon as he left the room, she
became visibly agitated all over, — her countenance changed, and she
was evidently resisting, with considerable effort, what I supposed a
slight attack of illness from being so long shut up in one room. I
asked her if she was sick. She replied, “No, but I cannot keep either
my body or my hands still. I am trembling all over.” As soon as she
�77
uttered these words, her hands and arms were violently shaken.
* * * * She became very much alarmed, and, running to her
mother, who was also deeply moved at this unlooked-for manifestation,
she said, while her voice trembled with fear, “ 0, mother, take me
away ! — take me away ! ” But her arms were forcibly wrested, as it
were, from her mother’s neck, and thrown violently up and down.
* * * * When, having soothed the frightened child, we in
duced her to remain in the circle some twenty minutes longer, her hand
was made to write legibly, and in bold, large letters,— not in the least
resembling her ordinary hand-writing,— answers to all our questions,
both mental and oral; and, what was yet more remarkable, she wrote
rapidly and easily; and the style of composition and the spelling far
excelled what we knew was the character of her original attempts at
composition, and her spelling previous to this time. Being fatigued,
about one o’clock, she was ordered, by the spirits, to leave the circle ;
and, not immediately complying with this direction, her chair was drawn
from under her by some invisible agency, and she fell to the floor. She
arose to go into the next room, and, as she was passing a sofa, she was
taken up bodily by some unseen force, and deposited upon it as gently
as if lain there by her parents.
At this sitting there were many correct answers given to questions,
and of such a character as to satisfy some individuals that the spirits
of their friends were really there. I could not bring myself to believe
that spirits had anything to do with the matter. * . * * *
I did not doubt that everything I witnessed took place without the
intervention of any individual present, and I knew that those present
could not have tricked me. In my own child I had that confidence which
a life of truthfulness has inspired. Yet the idea that the spirits of
our deceased friends could hold communication with ourselves on
earth, &c., was so strange, wonderful, and so incompatible with my edu
cation, and so opposed to my preconceived opinions and religious belief,
that what I had seen at this circle completely bewildered me. I could
not understand — I did not believe. * * * *
About this time (Oct. 1851) I was engaged in business which re
quired my absence for the day from home. The spirit of a friend had
intimated to my wife that he would apprise her of the time when I
would conclude this affair; and, on the day mentioned, just at the hour
when I had consummated the matter, he wrote out, through my daugh
ter’s hand, “ The doctor has settled his business.” She asked him how
�78
he knew; and he replied, “ I have just left him — it was six o’clock
when he finished.”
As soon as I returned home Mrs. D. immediately accosted me and
said, “ So you have arranged your affair.”
I was surprised, and asked her how she knew. She mentioned her
authority, and I then recalled to mind that just as the final arrange
ments were made the clock in the room struck six. I did not attempt
to explain this circumstance even to myself, and was yet an unbeliever.
* * * * There was no kind of evidence but what was pre
sented. The secret thoughts of my heart were read as if they had
been written on my face. Secrets, known only to the dead and my
self, were revealed to me, when there were none present but the
medium. Events, occurring even at the distance of a thousand miles,
were told to me while they were taking place, and afterwards were cor
roborated, to the letter, by the individuals who were active agents in
the transactions.
Facts relating to my own actions were predicted months before they
took place. I have listened to the most elevated thoughts, couched in
language far beyond her comprehension, describing facts in science, and
circumstances in the daily life of the spirits after death, which were
corroborated, fact by fact, idea by idea, by other mediums, with whom
she was entirely unacquainted, uttered by a little girl scarce nine years
*
old!
I have heard an illiterate mechanic repeat Greek, Latin, Hebrew and
Chaldaic. I have been present when a medium answered my ques
tions in the Italian language, of which she was ignorant, aod also
uttered several sentences in the same language, and gave the name of
the Italian gentleman, of whom she had never heard, but who was,
when living, the friend of one of the party at the circle. * * * *
It was not till after I had become a writing medium, against my will
and determined efforts to the contrary, that I yielded an implicit faith
in the truth of spiritual intercourse with men. After the concerted and
continued attempt to impress me had passed over, I refrained from
visiting circles, and thought, by staying away, I might be free from
any impression. On the contrary, my own arm would be moved while
I was asleep, and awake me by its motion.
During the time I abstained from sitting in any circle, I was twice
lifted bodily from my bed, mooed off its edge, and thus suspended in the
* It will be remembered Jesus “ was about twelve years old. ”
�79
air / # * * # Heretofore my arm had been the organ to which
their efforts had been chiefly directed; now, my whole body was sub
jected to their influence, against my will and desire, and all my strug
gles and efforts to resist them. * * * *
Often when I am alone in my office, my hand will be moved, and I
am obliged to abandon every other purpose till the spirits have con
cluded their communication. An incident of this kind happened some
months since. After I had retired to bed, I was awakened from sleep
by the rapid and violent motion of my hand. It was midnight. I
could assign no cause for this manifestation, and essayed to throw off
the influence, by all possible means, but in vain.
I was compelled to rise, procure pencil and paper, and a long com
munication was written before they would again permit me to sleep.
Another instance of their presence, when I was alone in my office,
took place a few weeks since. * * * * I was scarcely seated,
when my right hand began to move, In this hand was a small gold
pencil, which I had just been using. I was somewhat impatient at
this display of their presence, for I did not know how long I might be
detained, and I could spare them but very little time. I therefore
exclaimed, pettishly, “ Don’t detain me to write now, but show me
something new.” As if to gratify my request, the fingers and thumb
were brought together at the ends, leaving the pencil resting on the
ball of the thumb, and the fingers closed, forming a roof over it. In
this shape the arm was placed firmly on the arm of the chair, so I could
not move it. The pencil was then turned round several times, drawn
out from the hand, and lifted up toward the palm, without even a
movement of the fingers or hand during the whole operation. At this
moment a lady, resident in my house, who was an unbeliever, happened
to come into the office. I asked her to watch the pencil in my hand,
and see if it stirred. I also charged her to watch my hand, and see if
it moved in the least. I then asked the spirits to move the pencil as
before. The same process again took place, in every particular corre
sponding with the first. Whether this satisfied her or not of the pres
ence of the action of spirits, I am unable to say.
I have her corroboration of the fact as it occurred; that it was
impossible for the pencil to become so agitated by any effort of my
own.
It should be noticed, in this connection, that when I am alone, as
also when in a circle, the manifestation, whether by writing or any
�80
physical display, is entirely free from any participation with my own
mind, either in the subject taught or in the effect produced on my body.
I reiterate this statement, that it may be understood that the teach
ings revealed by my instrumentality, in this book, contain thoughts,
sentiments and statements, differing in toto from what were my own
views when they were communicated.
I have now given a brief history of some of the causes which have
induced in me the belief of Spirit-intercourse, and it is not a tithe, not
a hundredth part, of what I have witnessed.
George T. Dexter.
No. 2. Testimony of 1 to classes I, V. and VI. Judge Edmonds'
Statement, New York, Aug. 1 and Sept. 1, 1853. See Introduc
tion to “ Spiritualism."
It was in January, 1851, that my attention was first called to the
subject of “ spiritual intercourse.” I had, in the course of my life,
read and heard from the pulpit so many contradictory and conflicting
doctrines on the subject (of man’s future existence) that I hardly knew
what to believe.
For about four months I devoted at least two evenings in a week,
and sometimes more, to witnessing the phenomena in all its phases. I
kept careful records of all I witnessed, and, from time to time, com
pared them with each other, to detect inconsistencies and contradic
tions. I read all I could lay my hands upon, on the subject, and
especially all the professed “ exposures of the humbug.” In fine, I
availed myself of every opportunity that was afforded, thoroughly to
sift the matter to the bottom. I was all this time an unbeliever. At
length the evidence came, and in such a force that no sane man could
withhold his faith.
To detail what I witnessed, for those four months, and recorded,
would fill, at least, one hundred and thirty closely-written pages. I
will, however, mention a few things, which will give a general idea of
that which characterized interviews now numbering several hundred.
Most of them have occurred in the presence of others. I have pre
served their names in my records. * * * * These considera
tions grow out of this fact:
First, That I have thus very many witnesses whom I can invoke to
establish the truth of my statements.
Second, That if I have been deluded, and have not seen and heard
what I think I have, my delusion has been shared by many as shrewd, as
�81
intelligent, as honest and as enlightened people, as are to be found any
where among us.
My attention was first drawn to the intercourse by the rappings, then
the most common, but now the most inconsiderable mode of communing.
Of course, I was on the look out for deception, and at first relied upon
my senses, and the conclusions which my reason might draw from their
evidence. * * *
.
After depending upon my senses as to these various phases of the
phenomenon, I invoked the aid of science, and, with the assistance of an
accomplished electrician and his machinery, and of eight or ten intelli
gent, educated, and shrewd persons, examined the matter. We pursued
our inquiries many days, and established, to our satisfaction, two
things: first, that the sounds were not produced by the agency of any
person present or near us; and, secondly, that they were not forth
coming at our will and pleasure. In the mean time, another feature
attracted my attention, and that was “ physical manifestations,” as they
are termed. Thus, I have known a pine table, with four legs, lifted
up bodily from the floor, in the centre of a circle of six or eight per
sons, turned upside down, and laid upon its top at our feet, then lifted
up over our heads, and put leaning against the back of the sofa on
which we sat. * * * * I have seen a mahogany centre-table,
having only a centre leg, and with a lamp burning upon it, lifted from
the floor, at least a foot, in spite of the efforts of those present, and
shaken backward and forward, as one would shake a goblet in his
band. * * * *
I have known a dinner-bell, taken from a shelf in a closet, rung over
the heads of four or five persons in that closet, then rung around the
room over the heads of twelve or fifteen persons in the back parlor,
and then borne through the folding-doors to the further end of the
front parlor, and then dropped on the floor.
I have known persons pulled about, with a force which it was impos
sible for them to resist; and once, when all my strength was added, in
vain, to that of one thus affected.
I have known a mahogany chair thrown on its side, and moved
swiftly back and forth on the floor, no one touching it, through a room
where there were, at least, a dozen people sitting. Yet no one was
touched, and it was repeatedly stopped within a few inches of me, when
it was coming with a violence which, if not arrested, must have broken
my legs.
This is not a tithe, nay, not an hundredth part, of what I have seen,
8
�82
of the same character. At the same time, I have heard from others,
whose testimony would be credited in any human transaction, and
which I could not permit myself to disregard, accounts of still more
extraordinary transactions; for I have been, by no means, so much
favored in this respect as some.
Intelligence was a remarkable feature of the phenomenon. Thus, I
have frequently known mental questions answered, — that is, questions
merely framed in the mind of the interrogator, and not revealed by him
or known to others. Preparatory to meeting a circle, I have sat down
alone in my room, and carefully prepared a series of questions to be
propounded ; and I have been surprised to find my questions answered,
and in the precise order in which I wrote them, without my even tak
ing my memorandum out of my pocket, and when I knew that no per
son present knew that I had prepared questions, much less what they
were.
2Iy most secret thoughts — those which I never uttered to mortal
man or woman — have been freely spoken, as if I had uttered them.
I have known Latin, French, and Spanish words spelled out through
the rappings; and I have heard mediums, who knew no language but
their own, speak in those languages, and in Italian, German and Greek,
and in other languages unknown to me, but which were represented to
be Arabic, Chinese and Indian, and all done with the ease and rapid
ity of a native.
I have seen a person who knew nothing of music, except a little that
he had learned at a country singing-school, go to the piano and play in
perfect keeping, as to time and concord, the several parts of an over
ture to an opera.
When I was absent, last winter, in Central America, my friends, in
town, heard of my whereabouts, and of the state of my health, seven
times; and, on my return, by comparing their information with the
entries in my journal, it was found to be invariably correct.
I went into the investigation originally thinking it a deception, and
intending to make public my exposure of it. Having, from my
researches, come to a different conclusion, I feel that the obligation to
make known the result is just as strong. Therefore it is, mainly, that
I give the result to the world.
J. W. Edmonds.
The following statement of Governor Tallmadge, relative to the char
acter of Judge Edmonds, may be interesting to those who do not
already know his character. The statement is extracted from a letter
�83
to Hon. James F. Simmons, of Rhode Island, who had formerly been
in the United States Senate with Governor Tallmadge; Mr. Simmons
also being a firm believer in the spiritual manifestations.
“I had known Judge Edmonds for thirty years; had practised law in
the same courts, had served in the Senate of New York, with him, had
been associated with him also as a member of the Court for the Correc
tion of Errors, — the highest court in the state ; had known him, since
that time, as a justice of the Supreme Court, and, more recently, a
judge of the Court of Appeals, where he holds a deservedly high rank
among his brethren, the able judges of that court of last resort in the
State of New York.
“ I also knew him as a gentleman of finished classical education, and
as a lawyer of an acute mind, and a decided talent for investigation.
And, above all, I knew him to be a man of unimpeachable integrity.”
No. 3. Testimony of 1 to classes I. and VI.
Tallmadge.
Statement of Governor
During the above communication of Calhoun, the table moved occa
sionally, perhaps a foot, first one way and then the other. After the
communication closed, we all moved back from the table from two to
four feet, so that no one touched it. Suddenly it moved from the posi
tion it occupied some three or four feet, — rested a few moments, and
then moved back again to its original position. Then it again moved
as far the other way, and returned to the place it started from.
One side of it was then raised, and stood for a few moments at an
angle of about thirty-five degrees, and then again rested on the floor as
usual. The table was a large, heavy, round one, at which ten or a
dozen persons might be seated at dinner. During all these movements
no person touched it, nor was any one near it. After this the follow
ing conversation ensued: Q. Can you raise the table entirely from
the floor? A. Yes. Q. Will you raise me with it ? A. Yes; get
me the square table.
The square table was of cherry, with four legs, — a large-sized tea
table. It was brought out, and substituted for the round one. The
leaves being raised, I took my seat on the centre; the three ladies sat
at the sides and end, their hands and arms resting upon it. Two legs
of it were then raised about six inches from the floor, and then the
other two legs were raised to a level with the first, so that the whole
�84
table was suspended in the air about six inches from the floor. While
thus seated on it, I could feel a gentle vibratory motion, as if floating
in the atmosphere. After being thus suspended in the air for a few
moments, the table was gently let down again to the floor.
At a subsequent meeting, Calhoun directed me to bring three bells
and a guitar; I brought them accordingly. The bells were of different
sizes — the largest like a small-sized dinner-bell. He directed a drawer
to be put under the square table. I put under a bureau-drawer, bottom
side up. He directed the bells to be placed on the drawer. The three
ladies and myself were seated at the table, with our hands and arms
resting on it. The bells commenced ringing in a sort of chime. Nu
merous raps were made, as if beating time to a march. The bells con
tinued to ring, and to chime in with the beating of time. The time of
the march was slow and solemn. It was beautiful and perfect. The
most fastidious ear could not detect any discrepancy in it.
The raps then ceased, and the bells rang violently for several
minutes. A bell was then pressed on my foot, my ankle, and knee.
This was at different times; repeated knocks were made most vehe
mently against the underside of the table, so that a large tin candle
stick was, by every blow, raised completely from ,the table by the con
cussion. I afterward examined the underside of the table (which, it
will be recollected, was of cherry), and found indentations in the wood,
made by the end of the handle of the bell, which was tipped with
brass. Here the ringing of the bells ceased, and then I felt sensibly
and distinctly the impression of a hand on my foot, ankle, and knee.
These manifestations were several times repeated.
I was then requested to put the guitar on the drawer. We were all
seated as before, our hands and arms resting on the table. The guitar
was touched softly and gently, and gave forth sweet and delicious sounds,
like the accompaniment to a beautiful and exquisite piece of music.
It then played a sort of symphony, in much louder and bolder tones.
* * * I am utterly incapable of giving any adequate idea of the
beauty and harmony of this music. I have heard the guitar touched
by the most delicate and scientific hands, and heard from it, under such
guidance, the most splendid performances. But never did I hear any
thing that fastened upon the very soul like these prophetic strains,
drawn out by an invisible hand from the spirit world. After the
music had ceased, the following communication was received. “ This
is my hand that touches you and the guitar.
John C. Calhoun.”
I was present, by Calhoun’s appointment, with the Misses Fox and
�85
their mother. We were seated at the table as heretofore, our hands
and arms resting upon it. I was directed to put paper and pencil on
the drawer. I placed several sheets of unruled paper, together with a
wood pencil, on it. I soon heard the sound of the pencil on the paper.
It was then rapped out — Get the pencil and sharpen it. I looked
under the table, but did not see the pencil. At length, I found it
lying diagonally from me, three or four feet from the table; the lead
was broken off within the wood; I sharpened it, and again put it on the
drawer. Again, I heard the sound of the pencil on the paper. On
being directed to look at the paper, I discovered pencil-marks on each
side of the outer sheet, but no writing. Then was received the fol
lowing communication : “The power is not enough to write a sentence.
This will show you that I can write. If you meet on Friday, precisely
at seven, I will write a short sentence.
John C. Calhoun.”
We met pursuant to appointment; took our seats at the table, our hands
and arms resting on it as usual. I placed the paper, with my silvercased pencil, on the drawer, and said : “My friend, I wish the sentence to
be in your hand-writing, so that your friends will recognize it.” He
replied : “Yau will know the writing. Have your minds on the spirit
of John C. Calhoun.” I soon heard a rapid movement of the pencil on
the paper, and a rustling of the paper, together with a movement of
the drawer. I was then directed to look under the drawer. I found the
pencil outside of the drawer near my feet, but found no paper on the
drawer where I had placed it. On raising up the drawer, I discovered
the paper under it. The sheets were a little deranged, and, on examin
ing, I found on the outside sheet these words : “ Ifci with you still.”
I afterwards showed the “sentence” to Gen. James Hamilton, former
Governor of South Carolina; Gen. Waddy Thompson, former minister
to Mexico ; Gen. Robert B. Campbell, late consul at Havana ; together
with other intimate friends of Calhoun, and also to one of his sons, all
of whom are as well acquainted with his hand-writing as with their
own, and they all pronounced it to be a perfect fac-simile of the hand
writing of John C. Calhoun. Gen. Hamiltop says that Calhoun was
in the habit of writing “I’m” for “I am.” Mrs. Gen. Macomb has
stated the same fact to me.
How significant, then, does this fact become! We have not only the
most unequivocal testimony to the hand-writing itself, but, lest any
sceptic should suggest the possibility of an imitation, or a counterfeit,
this abbreviation, peculiar to himself, and known only to his most inti-
*
8
�86
mate friend?, and which no imitator or counterfeiter could know, is
introduced by way of putting such a suggestion to flight forever.
[This statement is extracted from a letter to Mrs. Sarah H. Whit
*
man, Providence, R. I., dated Washington, Jan. 10, 1853.] Signed,
N. P. Tallmadge.
The following is taken from a letter of Gov. Tallmadge to Judge
Edmonds. See “Spiritualism,” page 38:
“ My youngest daughter, aged thirteen, plays the piano by the in
struction of spirits, like an experienced performer. She knows nothing
of notes or music, and never played the piano before in her life.” *
Case XI. — Candor.
Mr. and Mrs. Newton's Testimony.
[Extracted from “ The Ministry of Angels Realized. A Letter to the
Edwards Congregational Church, Boston,” of which they were mem
bers.]
The results, however, of this first investigation, at the time, were
(for reasons not then apparent, but which have since been made plain
to us) far from satisfactory. Though we witnessed some striking
evidences of invisible intelligent agency, there was nothing by which
this agency could be positively identified; and the conclusion seemed
most in accordance with our previous opinions, that, if any agency
beyond that of human beings was concerned, it was that of evil and
seducing spirits. Some months subsequently to this, we were led to
attempt- the investigation under circumstances more favorable to
arriving at a satisfactory conclusion. * * * The results of this
interview were of the most surprising, yea, astounding character. An
intelligence, claiming to be that of a venerated parent, who had long
since passed within the vail, manifested its presence, and addressed to
one of us a communication glowing with parental affection, and
breathing the very spirit of the upper realm. This was accompanied
by the statement of a number of facts, pertaining to his earthly life,
none of which, we were fully satisfied, could have been known to any
person, bodily present, except the inquirer, and some of them unknown
even to him. Although the investigation had been approached with
* This case of playing the piano involves the same principles as being taught to
read. It is not more remarkable than the playing without human hands, which is
frequently done.
�87
minds on the alert and perceptions sharpened to detect collusion, im
posture, deception, or diabolism, in any of its forms, no trace of them
could be perceived; all was conducted with evident frankness and
candor, on the part of those concerned; and no solution of the
mystery was then arrived at, and no adequate one has since been
offered, which does not recognize the agency of intelligent beings. A
trumpet-blast from the clouds could scarcely have been more startling
to our prejudices and unbelief than was that message from the hidden
world. * * * As may be well supposed, the interest awakened
by this occurrence was sufficient to lead to a further investigation.
But a truth so novel and startling could not at once be received,
however demonstrative and convincing the evidence on which it rested.
Nor was it until evidence had accumulated upon evidence, and proof
become piled upon proof,— not until manifestations of the most mar
vellous character had been repeatedly witnessed, under a great variety
of circumstances, and notwithstanding the application of every con
ceivable test, — that we could consent to acknowledge, even to ourselves,
a belief in the agency of spiritual beings. That belief, however, in
spite of prejudice and scepticism, in spite of the general cry of “ hum
bug ” and “ imposture,” in spite of all attempts of scientific men to
explain the marvels on the basis of materialism (which explanations we
found in every case to be wholly inadequate to account for what we wit
nessed), that belief became at length forced upon our minds by irre
sistible evidence.
But the question still pressed upon us, who were these invisible
beings ? and what their character and designs ? They claimed to be
the spirits of departed human beings. Some of them insisted that they
were our relatives and friends, and they furnished most startling and
inexplicable proofs of their identity. They professed to be thus mani
festing themselves to our outward senses, for the purest and holiest of
purposes. * * *
The most favorable of opportunities were offered us for making this
investigation ; and they were carefully and prayerfully improved.
For several successive months did we continue to apply to what was
transpiring under our notice, through the mediumship of others, the
keenest powers of observation, and the highest exercise of moral per
ception, which have been granted us; ever seeking light and aid from
Him who has said, “ Ask, and ye shall receive.”
At length, these intelligences from another sphere began to manifest
themselves to us in a manner most unlooked-for and diverse from
�88
anything we had elsewhere witnessed, in the quietness and seclusion of
our own home, and without the intervention of any other person. From
small and gentle beginnings, they have gone forward as we were able to
bear the increasing light, to give greater, and higher, and clearer proofs
of the reality of their presence, their identity, and their heavenly mis
sion; until, through a period of six or seven months, we have been
permitted, as we believe, the almost daily enjoyment of the sweetest
and most intimate communion with the spirits of “just ones made per
fect above.”
Signed,
A. E. Newton,
S. J. Newton.
Such is a very brief statement of the experience of two persons in
this community, whose reputation is above suspicion, and whose candor
is made sufficiently evident by the character of the statement. Several
things should be noticed in this testimony.
First, They have been personal witnesses to the facts.
Second, These facts have been such as to convince them that they are
of a certain origin, and tend to produce certain results.
Third, They were prejudiced against these facts by previous experi
ence and religious belief.
Fourth, They took every possible precaution not to be deceived;
were not convinced till after a long and thorough investigation; finally,
the facts occurring in an unexpected manner in their own house, af
forded them the most ample opportunities for investigation, at the same
time precluding all possibility of imposition, unless they imposed upon
themselves, which, in consideration of their known integrity, their prej
udices and many other circumstances, it is absurd to suppose.
Fifth, As to their conclusion concerning the origin or cause, the
nature or character, the tendency or object, of these facts, they have
arrived at it by no preconceived notions. It is altogether contrary to
all their prejudices. They were compelled to relinquish every position
they had assumed, and this by no subtlety of logic, but by what they
saw and heard of the facts themselves; — and in this same manner, by
the facts, not by a process of reasoning, they were driven to their
conclusion.
Now, this experience, and these conclusions forced upon the mind
by it, do not belong alone to two persons, nor to a hundred, but thou
sands have had the same experience, and come to the same conclu
sions, concerning the origin, nature and tendency, of the phenomena. In
�89
view of these facts, I ask if it can be possible that all these people are
deceived ?
The idea of “ deception,” “ collusion,” “ humbug,” is absurd; a fool’s
reply, who judges a matter before he knows anything about it.
The assertion of “ physical impossibility ” is the bigot’s reply, who
judges all creation, and all powers of creation, by what he has seen in
his father’s door-yard, though he cannot even tell how the grass grows
thereon. The cry of “ diabolism,” raised by many divines, is a pla
giarism. Their brethren raised it eighteen hundred years ago, for the
same cause. They were obliged to admit the facts to save their own
reputation and influence ; they raised this foolish cry to bring the whole
thing into disrepute. But these are a thousand times more stupid; for
the facts which they thus admit will not only doom them to the fate of
their ancient brethren, but completely blast and totally annihilate the
chief corner-stone on which their order rests, their very shield and
defence against this as well as all other truths of nature which are not
first discovered and proclaimed within their own dismal edifice. Yes,
they are pitifully stupid to raise this cry of “ diabolism ” against that
which has not only laid a giant hand upon, but has already began to
strangle Diabolos himself; — that which has the power and the will
to completely finish the old fellow.
Can they not see the force of the reply to them, “ If Satan be
divided against Satan, how shall his kingdom stand ” ?
Again, the assertion of “physical cause" raised by some men of
science, is most unscientific of all that calls itself science. They are
not only obliged to exclude a whole class of important facts, which
rest upon just as good evidence as those which they accept, but they
are obliged to exclude from the majority of the facts they do admit
one important element, namely, a directing personal intelligence; they
are not only compelled to admit the physico-spiritual existence of a
new physical agent, or rather physical spiritual agent, which they
have never before known to exist, and the powers and properties
of which they theoretically and most dogmatically frame for every
occasion; but they are also compelled to renounce all their old the
ories of Psychology (the science of mind), and to attribute to the human
mind, in the body, more wonderful power than is claimed for it out
of the body.
If any one doubt this assertion, we refer him to “ The Philosophy
of Mysterious Rappings,” by Dr. Rogers, of Boston.
In this book he will find all we have stated fully illustrated. The
�90
work reminds us of a certain brilliant attempt once made, in the pres
ence of two honest country farmers, as they were hastily preparing
their dry hay for an approaching shower. A shaft of lightning, accom
panied by a sharp thunder-clap, descended upon a majestic pine, which
had for a century proudly defied all blasts of this kind. The fierce
bolt, no doubt, intended to demolish the noble tree at once; but, being
obliged to take a scientific course and follow the grain, it began to
wind itself around the trunk, more and more directly as it descended,
apparently becoming more angry, but making less headway, till finally
it spread itself over the whole surface of the tree, and fell harmless at
its roots; whereupon one of the farmers very coolly said, “ I swear !
that is the first time I ever saw lightning get its match.”
So we think science, if it attempt to explain this spirit manifestation
on “ material ” principles, will, for the first time, find its match.
The following, which we have taken from a daily paper, expresses
the conclusion to which every honest scientific inquirer must soon
come:
“ Prof. Hare, formerly Professor of Chemistry in the University of
Pennsylvania, avows that, after having tested the spiritual rappings by
electrical apparatus, and every other mode capable of detecting the
presence and influence of electricity as to their cause, he has come to
the conclusion that there is an intelligent independent invisible agency,
entirely aside from the medium, concerned in producing the various
phenomena, and further affirms that the theory of the spiritualists is
the only intelligible solution yet presented.”
It is well known among spiritualists and their opponents that this
aged professor had formerly endorsed the theory of Faraday, and that
he wrote several lengthy articles in favor of that theory.
�THE NATURE OF THE PHENOMENA.
We now take it for granted, that he who still adheres
to the “ miracles” of the New Testament, will accept, on
the far greater evidence, the modern “miracles.” We
think the superiority of the evidence will more than bal
ance the enchantment of distance. We have presupposed
that the resemblance between each of the first seven
classes in the New Testament, and those we have pre
sented under the same heads, would be sufficiently obvious
to justify this connection. They resemble each other as
much as any two cases at the present day. It would be
wholly gratuitous to point out the close resemblance be
tween the laying on of the dpostles’ hands and the con
sequent recovery of the sick, and the laying on of the
“mediums’” hands, followed by the same results. So
with speaking in tongues, the luminous appearances
attending spirit manifestations, and with all the other
classes ; the only difference seems to consist in some in
cidental circumstances attending the modern phenomena,
which have not been related as connected with those
of the New Testament. If they had some kinds of man
ifestations which we have not, we also have some of which
they give us no account, — such as spelling sentences by
raps or tips, or pointing to the letters ; writing by spirits
alone, and singing and playing music. But these kinds
of manifestations are produced by the same causes as
other kinds which we now have; they are all of the same
nature; and, should the development of new kinds
of manifestation continue to any extent, no one would
�92
think of assigning any new cause from that fact. Hence
we conclude that these different kinds of manifestation,
which are peculiar to each, will lead no one to suppose
that the modern phenomena are of a different nature from
the ancient, or that they can be assignable to a wholly
different cause. It is not philosophical to assign different
causes to phenomena so closely resembling each other,
simply because they occur in different ages of the world,
any more than it would be to say that those which now
occur in America are of a different nature, and are pro
duced by a different cause, from those in Europe. No
one would be in danger of this last mistake, though the
phenomena in the two countries differ as widely as those
in the two ages.
This principle, essential to science, has been insisted
upon by all who have attempted to account for these
phenomena; but they have made an exception in the
case of the Christian miracles, — an exception which, if
insisted upon, destroys the principle, and renders science
impossible.
So, when it is once decided that a number of phenomena
belong to the same class, according to a principle already
asserted, it is unphilosophical to assign a cause to the
whole from the consideration of a part only, whether
the part considered be the highest or lowest. The cause
must be adequate to the production of both the high and
the low. Hence we conclude that, whatever may have
been the moving cause in the early Christian manifesta
tions, the same cause is now operating to produce similar
phenomena.
Mr. Rogers, in his “ Philosophy of Mysterious Rap
pings,” judges the cause by physical manifestations of
the lowest character, in which no distinct marks of an
�93
independent directing intelligence are apparent; and
then, adhering to the principle above laid down, assigns
the same cause to the similar phenomena in which such
an intelligence is too apparent to be denied, without
denying many of the facts themselves. The cause he
assigns cannot produce the higher manifestations ; but
the cause assigned by spiritualists can produce both the
lower and the higher.
Mr. Dods, in his “ Spirit Manifestations Examined and
Explained” by the “Back-Brain,” says, “ On these in
voluntary powers (in the back-brain) presentiments are
often impressed ; and through these the Creator has held,
in the early ages of the world, mysterious converse with
holy men, and through these He has poured the streams
of prophetic truth and divine inspiration from the fountain
of His being, and through these He has reached the
reason, thought, understanding and will of His creatures ”
(p. 104). “It (the back-brain instinct, or involuntary
power) is the living oracle through which God has spoken
to His servants in dreams, in visions, in silent and passive
meditation. It is the living oracle, through which Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, consulted the Eternal;
and through which, as His inspired servants, they heard
His voice speaking, in the cool stillness of the day, in
silent and passive meditation” (p. 69). But Mr. Dods
pretends that it is almost blasphemy to suppose ‘‘ impres
sions” are now made upon these same involuntary powers
of the will by spirits, or that God now “speaks in dreams
and visions ” through this “ living oracle.” This is the
way he expresses it, in his own peculiar style : “Ladies
and gentlemen, I will only say that electro-psychology and
mesmerism, as matters of science, should be kept in their own appropriate domain, to detect and describe disease,
9
�94
and apply the healing remedy; but let them not pre
sume through these agents, by supposed spirit mani
festations, clairvoyance, or any other mode, to make a
revelation superior to the prophets, and Jesus Christ and
the apostles. And deeply do I regret that Mr. Davis has
attempted this!! ” (page 108). On the same page he says,
“ I say all somnambulists write, and, if I may so speak,
reason and move by the involuntary power of mind and
nerves. And so do all mesmeric clairvoyants, and those
in a state of catalepsy.” Now, he has just said, as we
have quoted, “ Through this involuntary power the Cre
ator has held, in the early ages of the world, mysterious
converse with holy men. It is the living oracle through
which Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and David, consulted the
Eternal, and through which, as His inspired servants, they
heard His voice.” Why, then, Mr. Dods, may not these
men, who you say possess the same “living oracle” as
“the prophets, and Jesus Christ and the apostles,” also
“ consult the Eternal ” through it, and, “ as His inspired
servants, hear His voice ” ? The prophets came before
Jesus Christ and his apostles; but Mr. Dods himself thinks
that the latter, “ through these agents,” did “ presume
to make a revelation superior to the prophets,” and that
' they succeeded.
Now, if Mr. Davis and others at the present day, who
have, according to Mr. Dods, presumed “ through these
agents to work a revelation superior to the prophets, and
Jesus Christ and the apostles,” should really succeed,
though Mr. Dods may “marvel and wonder,” “I hope
he will not wonder and perish” ! I have no fears that
he will; for, in the same chapter (p. 103), to save himself,
he has built a bridge in large capitals, on which he may
walk right over the invisible chasm from his theory into
�95
Spiritualism.
This is it: “Now,
convince me that the
SPIRIT MANIFESTATIONS ARE TRUE, AND MY PHILOSOPHY IS
STILL CORRECT.
In
SUCH A CASE IT WOULD BE NECESSARY
FOR ME TO MOVE MY POSITION ONE STEP FURTHER BACK, AND
SAY THAT DEPARTED SPIRITS INFLUENCED THE INVOLUNTARY
POWERS OF THE MIND IN THE BACK-BRAIN, AND MOVED INTO
ACTION THE INSTINCTIVE ENERGIES OF OUR.BEING.”*
If the New Testament records were accepted on the
same ground that we accept other records, and the accounts
of similar phenomena at the present day, it would be
readily seen that to reject the fact of spirit communica
tion would reject a large portion of the New Testament
itself, and make much of the remainder sheer nonsense ;
for that book begins and ends with, and all the way through
contains, reports of these communications, or allusions to
them. In the first and second chapters of Matthew sev
eral verbatim reports of these are professedly given, and
the whole book of Revelations is made up of what “ the
spirit,” who was John’s “fellow-servant, and of the
prophets,”’communicated to him while “ in the spirit,”
or, what we should say, “under the spiritual influence.”
The modern manifestations resemble those of the New
Testament, not only in their nature and quality, but in
the effect they produce on those who believe them.
“While reading Mr. Dods’ lectures, one feels that he already knows that he
cannot much longer maintain his present position, — that the facts will drive him
back, upon his own theory, into Spiritualism. He says, on the ninety-third page,
“ Let the mediums step into a room, not touch the table at all, and then cause it to
be tipped, raised or moved, and their work is done. For one, I am a convert,
and will unflinchinglyface a sneering and scoffing world.” Now, if Mr. Dods
is the candid man he professes to be, he will take the true method to satisfy him
self of this fact,— for it frequently occurs, — then he will “ unflinchingly come out,
and face a sneering and scoffing world.’’ We expect soon to see this additional
title attached to the second edition of his book : “ With my position moved one.
STEP FURTHER BACK.”
�96
Christ and his disciples, according to the accounts, be
came the most zealous philanthropists. So enthusiastic
were they, that they believed the kingdom of heaven
was really coming on the earth, and they in good earnest
set about to bring it. They met together and formed
communities (Acts 2 : 44, 45; 4 : 32, 37); and de
sired to live in harmony.
Now, the modern manifestations have precisely this
tendency; and in this consists their chief value.
The two following communications — the first purport
ing to come from John C. Calhoun, the second from W. E.
Channing — express the object the spirits professedly have
in view in these communications. They are given in
answer to this question: “ It is to draio mankind together
into harmony, and convince sceptics of the immortality of
the soul.”
“ To unite mankind and convince sceptical minds of
the immortality of the soul.”
And such every spiritualist knows to be their teach
ings generally, and the actual results of them. I could
name hundreds of sceptics, honest sceptics, whom the
New Testament, and the Christian ministry, and all other
means, could not convince, and yet who have become
firm believers in this joyous truth, through these mani
festations.
But its tendency “ to unite mankind in harmony” is
its most interesting feature to me. If it is all imagina
tion, I know it produces this result. I have for the last
six years been deeply interested in the social condition
of mankind ; and, were it not for this present influx of
spirit life, I should almost despair of its change for the
better.
But now I see the eyes of nearly all spiritualists
�97
opening to the fearful social discords which are baffling all
individual efforts for goodness and harmony.
With
but few exceptions, every spiritualist with whom I have
met has somehow become possessed of an intense desire
for harmony. “ Harmony” “Harmony,” I hear ut
tered, and repeated, many times, in every circle of spir
itualists. I know it has awakened the desire in the
hearts of thousands, and it has become intense.
Such a
desire I know will be answered by- some mighty practical
results. From the first creation of the world, there have
been periods of the influx of new and higher life into
this earth. It is distinctly traceable through all the geo
logical ages, and in the traditions and monumental his
tories of mankind. And now we see the most unmistaka
ble indications of a new and higher influx of life, of di
vine life, into this world, which is already opening upon
mankind the dawn of a new era, as much more glorious
than the “Christian” era as that is more glorious than
the Mosaic. The friends of the cause have everything
to hope. Let them work on ; the full light of the day
of harmony, which is now dawning, will soon appear,
when the reward of all their labors will be realized in
the practical brotherhood of the race ; what all those
ancient spiritualists so earnestly desired and labored for,
---- THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN ON EARTH.
I have, throughout, implied a belief in the spiritual
cause of these phenomena. This belief is founded on
facts and reason ; and, though firmly established in it, I
have not come to it by the observation of a few facts of
a particular kind, but by a careful observation of many
facts of various kinds, and under every variety of circum
stances. I have become so acquainted with this mode
of communication with spirits, that I can sit at the table,
*
9
�98
and, through its movements, converse almost as intelli
gently and rapidly as with a personal friend. I cannot
always tell who the spirit is with whom I am conversing.
But I have frequently become so acquainted with the
peculiar movements of a certain spirit, that I can iden
tify him the moment he begins to move the table. I can
readily detect the feelings of the spirit, whether he is
angry or pleased, by the movements. I have conversed
with spirits, when, by a single word, I seemed to throw
them into a violent fit of passion, which they would
manifest so forcibly as to greatly disturb the medium and
myself; then, by a few words, I have quieted them. I
have been sitting at the table with my sister, conversing,
when the table, of its own accord, would start off and
open the door, and come back to its former position;
when it, in the same manner, would go to the pianoforte,
and, by intelligible signs, ask for a tune ; and other
things of a similar nature. I have seen it perform, as in
telligently as a human being, and with an intelligence
wholly independent of the conscious thought of any person
in the room.
I have listened to and read communications enough to
fill a volume larger than the Bible ; and, with but very
few exceptions, the communications have been of a high
moral character ; frequently very applicable to the oc
casion, and gratifying to the feelings of the persons to
whom they were addressed ; also instructive to others
present. I haye seen frivolous communications, but
these have always been given in reply to questions equally
frivolous. Never have I witnessed anything lower, or
more vulgar, in the utterances of spirits, than in those
of the persons conversing with them at the time.
Truly, the communications are not generally so great
�99
and wise, according to the standard of this world ; but,
according to the New Testament standard, they often
contain “ the wisdom and the power of God unto sal
vation.” Generally they breathe the very spirit of love,
which, according to Jesus, is the germ of all wisdom.
They frequently manifest a deep interest in the welfare
of their personal friends, and in the general welfare of
humanity.
Do you ask again, “ What is the good of all this” ?
I would say, first, my dear friend, it will give you that
very light of which, your question implies, you are now
wholly destitute ; so destitute and dark is your mind,
that you cannot comprehend the light, and when it
shines upon you, you cry out, “ what is that ? ” “ away
with the shadow.”
Yes, it will enlighten you, wise as you now are, and
reveal to you things, both in heaven and earth, which,
hitherto, you have not dreamt of. Allow me to speak
further of my own experience.
I had “ lost ” a dear sister, whom I loved as myself,
and a father, more precious than life. I often thought
of delightful and instructive intercourse I had with them
while on earth ; my soul at times would seem to feel
their presence ; and, for the moment, I would seem to
realize a joyous communion with their spirits; but
the next moment I would be aroused from “ the pleasant
delusion,” to feel all the more lonely from the contrast.
Then would I offer the whole world for one audible word
from them, that I might know they still lived and knew
my thoughts; for I had even then begun to feel the
foreshadowing of that awful state of positive unbelief into
which many minds have fallen. I did not then see it;
but I now see that the course of study and investigation
�100
which I had marked out for myself would have carried
me to the pit of atheism, had I not been saved by means
which I did not then believe to exist.
In the winter of 1849-50, I took up a paper in which
an account of audible communication with the spirit
world was given. I read that account with a thrill of
interest seldom experienced ; though I could not believe
the reality of those dear friends speaking to me again,
while I lived on this earth, I hoped it would prove true.
I resolved to investigate for myself, for I had often
wondered why there could not be some means of com
munication between those who so dearly love. I did in
vestigate ; and, after a long trial, have become fully
convinced of the fact. I feel sure that my father and
sister have spoken that precious word for which I would
have travelled to the farthest verge of earth. And now,
when I think of that gloomy gulf of doubt into which all
the active tendencies of my nature and pursuits would
have inevitably plunged me, my heart swells with grati
tude, and yearns with a desire to use every means to
save the many thousand others who, in spite of all the
evidences in the Bible, have no belief in their immortal
existence.
I have seen many persons, in this land of Christian
churches, who, from honest doubt and sincere atheism,
have been brought to a firm and cheering faith in the
immortality of the soul, through the “ raps ” and the
“ table tippings.” Ask them, if you would know “ what
sense there is in a table jumping up and down.” They
will tell you it has done more for their souls than all your
pulpit “jumping up and down.” These physical move
ments, as they are called, though the lowest manifesta
tions, are still the most useful ; they are what most
�101
spiritual persons demand before they will accept the
higher as genuine spirit communications.
Thus it often
happens that those “ foolish things ” at which the wise
scoff are able to save them from the folly of their own
wisdom. “ The last shall be first, and the first shall be
last.”
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
New Testament "miracles" and modern "miracles"; the comparative amount of evidence for each; the nature of both; testimony of a hundred witnesses: an essay read before the middle and senior classes in Cambridge Divinity School
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Fowler, J. H.
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.; Philadephia
Collation: 101 p. ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Printed by Hobart & Robbins, Boston.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Bela Marsh
Partridge & Brittan
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1854
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5260
Subject
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Bible
Spiritualism
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (New Testament "miracles" and modern "miracles"; the comparative amount of evidence for each; the nature of both; testimony of a hundred witnesses: an essay read before the middle and senior classes in Cambridge Divinity School), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Bible-N.T.
Conway Tracts
Miracles
Spiritualism