utrage right reason
so boldly as the ecclesiastics. They do not sneer at "evidence"; nor
repudiate the requirement of legal proofs. In fact, there can be no
doubt that the spiritualists produce better evidence for their
manifestations than can be shown either for the miraculous death of
Arius, or for the Invention of the Cross.[67]

From the "levitation" of the axe at one end of a period of near three
thousand years to the "levitation" of Sludge & Co. at the other end,
there is a complete continuity of the miraculous, with every gradation,
from the childish to the stupendous, from the gratification of a caprice
to the illustration of sublime truth. There is no drawing a line in the
series that might be set out of plausibly attested cases of spiritual
intervention. If one is true, all may be true; if one is false, all may
be false.

This is, to my mind, the inevitable result of that method of reasoning
which is applied to the confutation of Protestantism, with so much
success, by one of the acutest and subtlest disputants who have ever
championed Ecclesiasticism--and one cannot put his claims to acuteness
and subtlety higher.

... the Christianity of history is not Protestantism. If ever
there were a safe truth it is this ... "To be deep in history
is to cease to be a Protestant." [68]

I have not a shadow of doubt that these anti-Protestant epigrams are
profoundly true. But I have as little that, in the same sense, the
"Christianity of history is not" Romanism; and that to be deeper in
history is to cease to be a Romanist. The reasons which compel my doubts
about the compatibility of the Roman doctrine, or any other form of
Catholicism, with history, arise out of exactly the same line of
argument as that adopted by Dr. Newman in the famous essay which I have
just cited. If, with one hand, Dr. Newman has destroyed Protestantism,
he has annihilated Romanism with the other; and the total result of his
ambidextral efforts is to shake Christianity to its foundations. Nor was
any one better aware that this must be he inevitable result of his
arguments--if the world should refuse to accept Roman doctrines and
Roman miracles--than the writer of Tract 85.

Dr. Newman made his choice and passed over to the Roman Church half a
century ago. Some of those who were essentially in harmony with his
views preceded, and many followed him. But many remained; and, as the
quondam Puseyite and present Ritualistic party,