f we reflect that we are not, in this case,
dealing with magnitude in the abstract, or with "whole" and "parts" in
their mathematical sense, but with concrete things, many of which are
known to possess the power of growing, or increasing in magnitude.
They thus furnish us with a conception of growth which we may, in
imagination, apply to loaves and fishes; just as we may, in
imagination, apply the idea of wings to the idea of a man. It must be
admitted that a number of sheep might be fed on a pasture, and yet
there might be more grass on the pasture, when the sheep left it, than
there was at first. We may generalise this and other such facts into a
perfectly definite conception of the increase of food in excess of
consumption; which thus becomes a possibility, the limitations of
which are to be discovered only by experience. Therefore, if it is
asserted that cooked food has been made to grow in excess of rapid
consumption, that statement cannot logically be rejected as an _a
priori_ impossibility, however improbable experience of the
capabilities of cooked food may justify us in holding it to be.

On the strength of this undeniable improbability, however, we not only
have a right to demand, but are morally bound to require, strong
evidence in its favour before we even take it into serious
consideration. But what is the evidence in this case? It is merely
that of those three books,[48] which also concur in testifying to the
truth of the monstrous legend of the herd of swine. In these three
books, there are five accounts of a "miraculous feeding," which fall
into two groups. Three of the stories, obviously derived from some
common source, state that five loaves and two fishes sufficed to feed
five thousand persons, and that twelve baskets of fragments remained
over. In the two others, also obviously derived from a common source,
distinct from the preceding, seven loaves and a few small fishes are
distributed to four thousand persons, and seven baskets of fragments
are left.

If we were dealing with secular records, I suppose no candid and
competent student of history would entertain much doubt that the
originals of the three stories and of the two are themselves merely
divergent versions of some primitive story which existed before the
three Synoptic gospels were compiled out of the body of traditions
current about Jesus. This view of the case, however, is incompatible
with a belief in the historical accuracy of the fir