miracle
unless the testimony be of such a kind that its falsehood would be more
miraculous than the fact which it endeavours 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."

There surely never was a greater number of miracles ascribed 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 extraordinary,
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 in the most eminent theatre that is
now in the world.

Nor is this all; a relation of them was published and dispersed
everywhere; 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 regarded as a
sufficient refutation.

Suppose that all the historians who treat of England should agree that
on January 1, 1600, Queen Elizabeth died; that both before and after her
death she was seen by her physicians and the whole court, as is usual
with persons of her rank; that her successor was acknowledged and
proclaimed by the Parliament; and that, after being interred a month,
she again appeared, resumed the throne, and governed England for three
years; I must confess that I should be surprised at the concurrence of
so many odd circumstances, but should not have the least inclination to
believe so miraculous 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 in vain object to me the