aordinary power to his knowledge of some
merely human secret, impropriety does but evidence his own want of
taste, and ambiguity his want of skill. We have no longer a right to
expect a great end, worthy means, or a frugal and judicious application
of the miraculous gift. Now, Apollonius claimed nothing beyond a fuller
insight into nature than others had; a knowledge of the fated and
immutable laws to which it is conformed, of the hidden springs on which
it moves.[338] He brought a secret from the East and used it; and though
he professed to be favoured, and in a manner taught, by good
spirits,[339] yet he certainly referred no part of his power to a
Supreme Intelligence. Theurgic virtues, or those which consisted in
communion with the Powers and Principles of nature, were high in the
scale of Pythagorean excellence, and to them it was that he ascribed his
extraordinary gift. By temperate living, it was said, the mind was
endued with ampler and more exalted faculties than it otherwise
possessed; partook more fully of the nature of the One Universal Soul,
was gifted with prophetic inspiration, and a kind of intuitive
perception of secret things.[340] This power, derived from the favour of
the celestial deities, who were led to distinguish the virtuous and
high-minded, was quite distinct from magic, an infamous, uncertain, and
deceitful art, consisting in a compulsory power over infernal spirits,
operating by means of Astrology, Auguries, and Sacrifices, and directed
to the personal emolument of those who cultivated it.[341] To our
present question, however, this distinction made by the genuine
Pythagorean, is unimportant. To whichever principle the miracles of
Apollonius be referred, theurgy or magic, in either case they are
independent of the First Cause, and not granted with a view to the
particular purpose to which they are to be applied.[342]

3. We have also incidentally shown that they did not profess to be
miracles in the proper meaning of the word, that is, evident innovations
on the laws of nature. At the utmost they do but exemplify the aphorism,
"Knowledge is power."[343] Such as are within the range of human
knowledge are no miracles. Those of them, on the contrary, which are
beyond it, will be found on inspection to be unintelligible, and to
convey no evidence. The prediction of an earthquake (for instance) is
not necessarily superhuman. An interpretation of the discourse of birds
can never be verified. In u