rse of events, or to the supposed occurrence of miracles, can be
scientifically based. The real objection, and, to my mind, the fatal
objection, to both these suppositions, is the inadequacy of the
evidence to prove any given case of such occurrences which has been
adduced. It is a canon of common sense, to say nothing of science,
that the more improbable a supposed occurrence, the more cogent ought
to be the evidence in its favour. I have looked somewhat carefully
into the subject, and I am unable to find in the records of any
miraculous event evidence which even approximates to the fulfilment of
this requirement.

But, in the case of prayer, the Bishop points out a most just and
necessary distinction between its effect on the course of nature,
outside ourselves, and its effect within the region of the
supplicator's mind.

It is a "law of nature," verifiable by everyday experience, that our
already formed convictions, our strong desires, our intent occupation
with particular ideas, modify our mental operations to a most
marvellous extent, and produce enduring changes in the direction and
in the intensity of our intellectual and moral activities. Men can
intoxicate themselves with ideas as effectually as with alcohol or
with bang, and produce, by dint of intense thinking, mental conditions
hardly distinguishable from monomania. Demoniac possession is
mythical; but the faculty of being possessed, more or less completely,
by an idea is probably the fundamental condition of what is called
genius, whether it show itself in the saint, the artist, or the man of
science. One calls it faith, another calls it inspiration, a third
calls it insight; but the "intending of the mind," to borrow Newton's
well-known phrase, the concentration of all the rays of intellectual
energy on some one point, until it glows and colours the whole cast of
thought with its peculiar light, is common to all.

I take it that the Bishop of Manchester has psychological science with
him when he insists upon the subjective efficacy of prayer in faith,
and on the seemingly miraculous effects which such "intending of the
mind" upon religious and moral ideals may have upon character and
happiness. Scientific faith, at present, takes it no further than the
prayer which Ajax offered; but that petition is continually granted.

Whatever points of detail may yet remain open for discussion, however,
I repeat the opinion I have already expressed, that the Manche