nce of the Spanish ambassador and
many others, he once flew over the heads of the congregation. Once
he asked a priest whether the holy elements were kept in a
particular place. 'Who knows?' said the priest, whereon Joseph
soared over his head, remained kneeling in mid air, and came down
only at the request of his ecclesiastical superior. Joseph was
clairvoyant, and beheld apparitions, but on the whole (apart from
his moral excellence) his flights were his most notable
accomplishment. On one occasion he 'casual remarked to a friend,'
'what an infernal smell' (infernails odor), and then nosed out a
number of witches and warlocks who were compounding drugs:
'standing at some considerable distance, standing, in fact, in quite
another street'.

Iamblichus, in the letter to Porphyry, describes such persons as St.
Joseph of Cupertino. 'They have been known to be lifted up into the
air. . . . The subject of the afflatus has not felt the application
of fire. . . . The more ignorant and mentally imbecile a youth may
be, the more freely will the divine power be made manifest.' Joseph
was ignorant, and 'enfeebled by vigil and fasts,' so Joseph was
'insensible of the application of fire,' and 'was lifted up into the
air'. Yet the cardinals, surgeons, and other witnesses were not
thinking of the pagan Iamblichus when they attested the
accomplishments of the saint. Whence, then, comes the uniformity of
evidence?

The sceptical Calef did not believe in these things, because they
are 'miracles,' that is, contrary to experience. But here is
experience enough to which they are not contrary.

There are dozens of such depositions, and here it is that the
student of testimony and of belief finds himself at a deadlock.
Believe the evidence we cannot, yet we cannot doubt the good faith,
the veracity of the attesting witnesses. Had we only savage, or
ancient and uneducated testimony, we might say that the uniformity
of myths of levitation is easily explained. The fancy wants a
marvel, it readily provides one by positing the infraction of the
most universally obvious law, that of gravitation. Men don't fly;
let us say that a man flew, like Abaris on his arrow! This is
rudimentary, but then witnesses whose combined testimony would prove
almost anything else, declare that they saw the feat performed.
Till we can find some explanation of these coincidences of
testimony, it is plain that a province in psychology, in the
relatio