d what can be more thrilling
than a miracle? Constance, the heroine of the _Man of Law's Tale_ in
Chaucer, is rescued from death when in most perilous plight by that
Unseen Hand which frustrates the plots of the wicked. Skepticism and
realism are slowly acquired habits of mind. The primary impulse is to
believe. And, when religious motives and traditions enter to
strengthen the sway of this impulse, it is hard to counteract. When
learned theologians enunciate the principle, "I believe because it is
absurd," it is not to be wondered at that the mass of the people
believe because they do not see that it is absurd. For ages, the world
was a sort of quicksand, and it has taken far more courage and sheer
intellectual capacity and moral daring than the mass of the people will
ever conceive to build dykes out into {130} the unknown and rescue it
for the empire of unswerving law.

But we must pass from the historical study of miracles to the
systematic, or philosophical, aspect of the matter. The philosophy of
miracles breaks up into two parts, the laws of evidence and proof, and
the nature of cause. The first part may be called logical; the second,
metaphysical.

Theological miracles involve two elements, the fact and the theory. It
is only after the fact has been sufficiently proven that its cause can
come into question. It is absurd to explain facts either by natural
processes or by the will of God until you are certain that these events
_were_ actual occurrences. If a child took _Alice in Wonderland_ too
seriously and asked me to explain "Why the sea is boiling hot," I would
be compelled to disappoint its craving for explanation. Now I am
certain that the situation in regard to miracles is not much otherwise.
Were the alleged facts to be proven beyond reasonable doubt, the need
for a genuine explanation would press upon us. But the history of the
subject points in the other direction.

The logic of evidence concerns itself with the tests applied to
statements which purport to be facts. What reason have we to believe
in those stories which have been handed down to us from the past, or in
the tales of marvelous cures and visions spread abroad in certain
circles to-day? Is it not evident that we must apply to them the same
stringent tests that the scientist employs? All the canons of
evidence, external and internal, must be brought to bear upon them.
Accounts of cures in connection with the shrines of saints