, of course, the men of that time
would have been equally entitled to reason in the same way about
them as ourselves; and, in short, that we may fearlessly apply the
same principle to the same epoch."

"Of course"

"And so for two thousand years before that; and, in fact, we must
believe that every thing has always been going on in the same manner,
--the sun always rising and setting, men dying and never rising
and so forth."

"Exactly so, even from the beginning of the creation," said Fellowes.

"The beginning of the creation! My good fellow, I do not understand
you. As we have been going back, we have seen that there is no
period at which the same principle of judgment will not apply, and,
following it fearlessly, I say that we are in all fairness bound
to believe that there never has been a period when the present order
has been different from what it is; in other words, that the
progression has been an eternal one."

"I cannot admit that argument," said Fellowes.

"Then be pleased to provide me with a good answer to it, which will
still leave us at liberty to say, that a miracle (that is, a variation
from the order of nature as determined by our uniform experience, and
by that of the whole circle of our contemporaries) is impossible,
and that we may reject at once any pretension of the kind."

"But I do not admit that the creation of any thing or of all things
is of the nature of a miracle."

Harrington smiled. "I am afraid," said he, "that to common sense,
to fair reasoning, to any philosopher worthy of the name there would
be no difference except in magnitude, between such an event as the
sudden appearance of an animal (say man) for the first time in our
world, or the first appearance of a tree (such a thing never having
been before), and the restoration to life of a dead man. Each is, to
all intents and purposes, a violation of the previous established
series of antecedents and consequents, and comes strictly within
the limits of our definition of a miracle; and a miracle, you know
is impossible. The only difference will be, that the miracle in the
one case will be greater and more astonishing than that in the other."

"But it is impossible, in the face of geologists, to contend that
there have not been many such revolutions in the history of the world
as these. Man himself is of comparatively recent introduction into
our system."

"I cannot help what the geologists affirm. If we are to abide by our