I was curious to watch the effects of this calamity on the varied characters of mankind.  There was universally, however, an interest in the Bible now it was lost, such as had never attached to it while it was possessed; and he who had been but happy enough to possess fifty copies might have made his fortune.  One keen speculator, as soon as the first whispers of the miracle began to spread, hastened to the depositories of the Bible Society and the great book-stocks in Paternoster Row, and offered to buy up at a high premium any copies of the Bible that might be on hand; but the worthy merchant was informed that there was not a single copy remaining.  Some, to whom their Bible had been a “blank” book for twenty years, and who would never have known whether it was full or empty had not the lamentations of their neighbors impelled them to look into it, were not the least loud in their expressions of sorrow at this calamity.  One old gentleman, who had never troubled the book in his life, said it was “confounded hard to be deprived of his religion in his old age”; and another, who seemed to have lived as though he had always been of Mandeville’s opinion, that “private vices were public benefits,” was all at once alarmed for the morals of mankind.  He feared, he said, that the loss of the Bible would have “a cursed bad effect on the public virtue of the country.”

As the fact was universal and palpable, it was impossible that, like other miracles, it should leave the usual loopholes for scepticism.  Miracles in general, in order to be miracles at all, have been singular or very rare violations of a general law, witnessed by a few, on whose testimony they are received, and in the reception of whose testimony consists the exercise of that faith to which they appeal.  It was evident, that, whatever the reason of this miracle, it was not an exercise of docile and humble faith founded on evidence no more than just sufficient to operate as a moral test.  This was a miracle which, it could not be denied, looked marvellously like a “judgment.”  However, there were, in some cases, indications enough to show how difficult it is to give such evidence as will satisfy the obstinacy of mankind.  One old sceptical fellow, who had been for years bedridden, was long in being convinced (if indeed, he ever was) that any thing extraordinary had occurred in the world; he at first attributed the reports of what he heard to the “impudence” of his servants and dependents, and wondered that they should dare to venture upon such a joke.  On finding these assertions backed by those of his acquaintance, he pished and pshawed, and looked very wise, and ironically congratulated them on this creditable conspiracy with the insolent rascals, his servants.  On being shown the old Bible, of which he recognized the binding, though he had never seen the inside, and finding it a very fair book of blank paper, he quietly observed that it was very easy to substitute the one book for the