wonderful than
that we live--that we think--that we convey our thoughts by speech,
by gestures, by pictures.

Nothing is more wonderful than the growth of grass--the production
of seed--the bud, the blossom and the fruit. In other words, we
are surrounded by the inexplicable.

All that happens in conformity with what we know, we call natural;
and that which is said to have happened, not in conformity with
what we know, we say is wonderful; and that which we believe to
have happened contrary to what we know, we call the miraculous.

I think the truth is, that nothing ever happened except in a natural
way; that behind every effect has been an efficient cause, and that
this wondrous procession of causes and effects has never been, and
never will be, broken. In other words, there is nothing superior
to the universe--nothing that can interfere with this procession
of causes and effects. I believe in no miracles in the theological
sense. My opinion is that the universe is, forever has been, and
forever will be, perfectly natural.

Whenever a religion has been founded among barbarians and ignorant
people, the founder has appealed to miracle as a kind of credential
--as an evidence that he is in partnership with some higher power.
The credulity of savagery made this easy. But at last we have
discovered that there is no necessary relation between the miraculous
and the moral. Whenever a man's reason is developed to that point
that he sees the reasonableness of a thing, he needs no miracle to
convince him. It is only ignorance or cunning that appeals to the
miraculous.

There is another thing, and that is this: Truth relies upon itself
--that is to say, upon the perceived relation between itself and
all other truths. If you tell the facts, you need not appeal to
a miracle. It is only a mistake or a falsehood, that needs to be
propped and buttressed by wonders and miracles.

_Question_. What is your explanation of the miracles referred to
in the Old and New Testaments?

_Answer_. In the first place, a miracle cannot be explained. If
it is a real miracle, there is no explanation. If it can be
explained, then the miracle disappears, and the thing was done in
accordance with the facts and forces of nature.

In a time when not one it may be in thousands could read or write,
when language was rude, and when the signs by which thoughts were
conveyed were few and inadequate, it was very easy to make mistakes,
an