lter
Scott knew that he could not repeat a story without, as he said,
"giving it a new hat and stick." Most of us differ from Sir Walter
only in not knowing about this tendency of the mythopoeic faculty to
break out unnoticed. But it is also perfectly true that the mythopoeic
faculty is not equally active in all minds, nor in all regions and
under all conditions of the same mind. David Hume was certainly not so
liable to temptation as the Venerable Bede, or even as some recent
historians who could be mentioned; and the most imaginative of
debtors, if he owes five pounds, never makes an obligation to pay a
hundred out of it. The rule of common sense is _prima facie_ to trust
a witness in all matters, in which neither his self-interest, his
passions, his prejudices, nor that love of the marvellous, which is
inherent to a greater or less degree in all mankind, are strongly
concerned; and, when they are involved, to require corroborative
evidence in exact proportion to the contravention of probability by
the thing testified.

Now, in the Gadarene affair, I do not think I am unreasonably
sceptical, if I say that the existence of demons who can be
transferred from a man to a pig, does thus contravene probability. Let
me be perfectly candid. I admit I have no _a priori_ objection to
offer. There are physical things, such as _taeniae_ and _trichinae_,
which can be transferred from men to pigs, and _vice versa_, and which
do undoubtedly produce most diabolical and deadly effects on both.
For anything I can absolutely prove to the contrary, there may be
spiritual things capable of the same transmigration, with like
effects. Moreover I am bound to add that perfectly truthful persons,
for whom I have the greatest respect, believe in stories about spirits
of the present day, quite as improbable as that we are considering.

So I declare, as plainly as I can, that I am unable to show cause why
these transferable devils should not exist; nor can I deny that, not
merely the whole Roman Church, but many Wacean "infidels" of no mean
repute, do honestly and firmly believe that the activity of such like
demonic beings is in full swing in this year of grace 1889.

Nevertheless, as good Bishop Butler says, "probability is the guide of
life;" and it seems to me that this is just one of the cases in which
the canon of credibility and testimony, which I have ventured to lay
down, has full force. So that, with the most entire respect for many