d, and taught, and died in Palestine
eighteen hundred years ago. We have no intention of
reviewing M. Renan. He will be read soon enough by
many who would better consider their peace of mind
by leaving him alone. For ourselves we are unable
to see by what right, if he rejects the miraculous part
of the narrative, he retains the rest; the imagination
and the credulity which invent extraordinary incidents
invent ordinary incidents also; and if the divine
element in the life is legendary, the human may be
legendary also. But there is one lucid passage in the
introduction which we commend to the perusal of
controversial theologians:--

No miracle such as those of which early histories are full
has taken place under conditions which science can accept.
Experience shows, without exception, that miracles occur
only in times and in countries in which miracles are believed
in, and in the presence of persons who are disposed to
believe them. No miracle has ever been performed before
an assemblage of spectators capable of testing its reality.
Neither uneducated people, nor even men of the world,
have the requisite capacity; great precautions are needed,
and a long habit of scientific research. Have we not seen
men of the world in our own time become the dupes of the
most childish and absurd illusions? And if it be certain
that no contemporary miracles will bear investigation, is it
not possible that the miracles of the past, were we able to
examine into them in detail, would be found equally to
contain an element of error? It is not in the name of this
or that philosophy, it is in the name of an experience which
never varies that we banish miracles from history. We do
not say a miracle is impossible, we say only that no miracle
has ever yet been proved. Let a worker of miracles come
forward to-morrow with pretensions serious enough to
deserve examination. Let us suppose him to announce
that he is able to raise a dead man to life. What would be
done? A committee would be appointed, composed of
physiologists, physicians, chemists, and persons accustomed
to exact investigation; a body would then be selected which
the committee would assure itself was really dead; and a
place would be chosen where the experiment was to take
place. Every precaution would be taken to leave no
opening for uncertainty; and if, under those conditions, the
restoration to life was effected, a probability would be
arrived at which would be almost equa