e not allowed to go up on their feet, and with
no small surprise saw several devout females in the performance
of this ceremony. They walk up the vestibule, drop upon their
knees, rise and walk over the landing-place, carefully tuck up
their gowns, drop again, and then up they toil in the most absurd
and ridiculous postures imaginable.

Weak in their limbs, but in devotion strong,
On their bare hands and feet they crawl along.
DRYDEN, _Juv._ 6.

I suppose there is some spiritual advantage derivable from the
action, but I don't know what. Why, however, I should be
surprised I can't tell, after all I have seen here. Madame de
Dalberg came to my recollection, and San Gennaro; she had owned
to me that she believed in the miracle, and we had a long dispute
about it, though I have since thought that I am wrong to regard
her credulity with such pity and contempt. The case admits of an
argument, though not that which she made use of. Many people are
right in what they do, but without knowing why; some wrong, with
very fair reasons. She, however, is wrong both ways, but she had
been brought up in principles of strong religious belief, and she
belongs to a church which teaches that miracles have never ceased
from the days of the Apostles till now. Those who believe that a
miracle ever was performed cannot doubt that another _may_ be
performed now; the only question is as to the fact. _We_ believe
that miracles ceased with the Apostles, and we pronounce all that
are alleged to have happened since to be fictitious. Believing as
she does that miracles have continually occurred, it is more
reasonable to believe in the reality of one she sees herself than
in those which are reported by others. She sees this done; it is,
then, a miracle or it is an imposture; but it is declared to be a
miracle by a whole body of men, who must know whether it be so or
not, and to whom she has been accustomed to look up with respect
and confidence, and who have always been deemed worthy of belief.
What is it, then, she believes? The evidence of her own senses,
and the testimony of a number of men, and a succession of them,
who are competent witnesses, and whose characters are for the
most part unblemished, in her opinion certainly. The objection
that it is improbable, and that no sufficient reason is assigned
for its performance, is quite inadmissible, as all considerations
of reason