nature, then it seems to me that
the miracle must be admitted to be an impossibility. It is like
twice two are eleven in mathematics.

If, again, we take the ground of some of the more advanced clergy,
that a miracle is in accordance with the facts in nature, but with
facts unknown to man, then we are compelled to say that a miracle
is performed by a divine sleight-of-hand; as, for instance, that
our senses are deceived; or, that it is perfectly simple to this
higher intelligence, while inexplicable to us. If we give this
explanation, then man has been imposed upon by a superior intelligence.
It is as though one acquainted with the sciences--with the action
of electricity--should excite the wonder of savages by sending
messages to his partner. The savage would say, "A miracle;" but
the one who sent the message would say, "There is no miracle; it
is in accordance with facts in nature unknown to you." So that,
after all, the word miracle grows in the soil of ignorance.

The question arises whether a superior intelligence ought to impose
upon the inferior. I believe there was a French saint who had his
head cut off by robbers, and this saint, after the robbers went
away, got up, took his head under his arm and went on his way until
he found friends to set it on right. A thing like this, if it
really happened, was a miracle.

So it may be said that nothing is much more miraculous than the
fact that intelligent men believe in miracles. If we read in the
annals of China that several thousand years ago five thousand people
were fed on one sandwich, and that several sandwiches were left
over after the feast, there are few intelligent men--except, it
may be, the editors of religious weeklies--who would credit the
statement. But many intelligent people, reading a like story in
the Hebrew, or in the Greek, or in a mistranslation from either of
these languages, accept the story without a doubt.

So if we should find in the records of the Indians that a celebrated
medicine-man of their tribe used to induce devils to leave crazy
people and take up their abode in wild swine, very few people would
believe the story.

I believe it is true that the priest of one religion has never had
the slightest confidence in the priest of any other religion.

My own opinion is, that nature is just as wonderful one time as
another; that that which occurs to-day is just as miraculous as
anything that ever happened; that nothing is more