“No doubt of that.”

“And just so in other cases.  This, then, is our ground.  You would not (if I may advise) lay much stress on the fact that there have been so many stories of a supernatural kind false.”

“Why, I do not know whether it would not be wise to insist upon that argument.  It seems to be not without weight,” urged Fellowes.

“Perhaps so,” replied Harrington; “but it has, you see, this inconvenience, of proving more than you want.  The greater part by far of all religions have been false.  But you affirm that there is one little system absolutely true.  The greater part of the theories of science and philosophy, which men, from time to time, have framed, have also been false; and yet you believe that there is such a thing as true philosophy and true science.  Similarly, the generality of political governments have been founded on vicious principles, yet you hope for a political millennium at last.  In short, the argument would go to prove, that, as there can never have been any true miracles because there have been so many false ones, so, for similar reasons, it is mere ‘vanity and vexation of spirit’ to search after truth in religion, or science, or politics; and though a sceptic, like myself, might not much mind it, perhaps it would trammel such a positive philosopher as you.  Nay, a pertinacious opponent might even say, that, as you believe that in all these last cases there is a substance, else there would not have been the shadows, so, with reference to miracles, the very general belief of them rather argues that there have been miracles, than that there have been none.  My advice is, that we adhere to these reasons we have assigned, for they are our real reasons.”

“Be it so; I hate miracles so much, that I care not by what means the doltish delusion is dissipated.”

“Only that the weapons should be fair?”

“O, of course.”

“To resume, then.  I say, that, if we were told that last year an event of such a miraculous nature occurred as that the earth did not revolve for twenty-four hours together, we should at once reject it, without any examination of witnesses, or troubling ourselves with any thing of the kind.”

“Unquestionably.”

“And if it were said to have occurred twenty years ago we should take the same course.”

“Certainly.”

“And so if any such event were said to have occurred eighteen hundred years ago?”

“Agreed.”

“And if such events were said at that day to have occurred eighteen hundred years previously, we believe, of course, the men of that time would have been equally entitled to reason in the same way about them as ourselves; and, in short, that we may fearlessly apply the same principle to the same epoch.”

“Of course”

“And so for two thousand years before that; and, in fact, we must believe that every thing has always been going on in the same manner, —­the sun always rising and setting, men dying and never rising and so forth.”