the
transfiguration of the Saviour; and an infinity of other appearances
made to all kinds of persons, and related by wise, grave, and
enlightened authors? Are the apparitions of devils and spirits more
difficult to explain and conceive than those of angels, which we
cannot rationally dispute without overthrowing the entire Scriptures,
and practices and belief of the churches?

Does not the apostle tell us that the angel of darkness transforms
himself into an angel of light? Is not the absolute renunciation of
all belief in apparitions assaulting Christianity in its most sacred
authority, in the belief of another life, of a church still subsisting
in another world, of rewards for good actions, and of punishments for
bad ones; the utility of prayers for the dead, and the efficacy of
exorcisms? We must then in these matters keep the medium between
excessive credulity and extreme incredulity; we must be prudent,
moderate, and enlightened; we must, according to the advice of St.
Paul, test everything, examine everything, yield only to evidence and
known truth.

Footnotes:

[432] Ezek. xxi. 21.

[433] Hosea iv. 12.

[434] Aug. lib. xiv. de Civit. Dei, c. 24.

[435] Galen. de Differ. Sympt.

[436] By M. Fransquin Chanoine de Taul.

[437] Ludov. Vives, lib. i. de Veritate Fidei, p. 540.

CHAPTER XLIX.

THE SECRETS OF PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY TAKEN FOR SUPERNATURAL THINGS.

It is possible to allege against my reasoning the secrets of physics
and chemistry, which produce an infinity of wonderful effects, and
appear beyond the power of natural agency. We have the composition of
a phosphorus, with which they write; the characters do not appear by
daylight, but in the dark we see them shine; with this phosphorus,
figures can be traced which would surprise and even alarm during the
night, as has been done more than once, apparently to cause
maliciously useless fright. _La poudre ardente_ is another phosphorus,
which, provided it is exposed to the air, sheds a light both by night
and by day. How many people have been frightened by those little worms
which are found in certain kinds of rotten wood, and which give a
brilliant flame by night.

We have the daily experience of an infinite number of things, all of
them natural, which appear above the ordinary course of nature,[438]
but which have nothing miraculous in them, and ought not to be
attributed to angels or demons; for instance, teeth and noses taken
from