An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume (good e books to read TXT) 📖
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that the cardinal himself, who relates the story, seems not to give any
credit to it, and consequently cannot be suspected of any concurrence in
the holy fraud. He considered justly, that it was not requisite, in
order to reject a fact of this nature, to be able accurately to disprove
the testimony, and to trace its falsehood, through all the circumstances
of knavery and credulity which produced it. He knew, that, as this was
commonly altogether impossible at any small distance of time and place;
so was it extremely difficult, even where one was immediately present,
by reason of the bigotry, ignorance, cunning, and roguery of a great
part of mankind. He therefore concluded, like a just reasoner, that such
an evidence carried falsehood upon the very face of it, and that a
miracle, supported by any human testimony, was more properly a subject
of derision than of argument.
There surely never was a greater number of miracles ascribed to one
person, than those, which were lately said to have been wrought in
France upon the tomb of Abb� Paris, the famous Jansenist, with whose
sanctity the people were so long deluded. The curing of the sick, giving
hearing to the deaf, and sight to the blind, were every where talked of
as the usual effects of that holy sepulchre. But what is more
extraordinary; many of the miracles were immediately proved upon the
spot, before judges of unquestioned integrity, attested by witnesses of
credit and distinction, in a learned age, and on the most eminent
theatre that is now in the world. Nor is this all: a relation of them
was published and dispersed every where; nor were the Jesuits, though
a learned body, supported by the civil magistrate, and determined
enemies to those opinions, in whose favour the miracles were said to
have been wrought, ever able distinctly to refute or detect them[24].
Where shall we find such a number of circumstances, agreeing to the
corroboration of one fact? And what have we to oppose to such a cloud of
witnesses, but the absolute impossibility or miraculous nature of the
events, which they relate? And this surely, in the eyes of all
reasonable people, will alone be regarded as a sufficient refutation.
[24] This book was writ by Mons. Montgeron, counsellor or judge
of the parliament of Paris, a man of figure and character, who
was also a martyr to the cause, and is now said to be somewhere
in a dungeon on account of his book.
There is another book in three volumes (called _Recueil des
Miracles de l’Abb�_ Paris) giving an account of many of these
miracles, and accompanied with prefatory discourses, which are
very well written. There runs, however, through the whole of
these a ridiculous comparison between the miracles of our
Saviour and those of the Abb�; wherein it is asserted, that the
evidence for the latter is equal to that for the former: As if
the testimony of men could ever be put in the balance with that
of God himself, who conducted the pen of the inspired writers.
If these writers, indeed, were to be considered merely as human
testimony, the French author is very moderate in his
comparison; since he might, with some appearance of reason,
pretend, that the Jansenist miracles much surpass the other in
evidence and authority. The following circumstances are drawn
from authentic papers, inserted in the above-mentioned book.
Many of the miracles of Abb� Paris were proved immediately by
witnesses before the officiality or bishop’s court at Paris,
under the eye of cardinal Noailles, whose character for
integrity and capacity was never contested even by his enemies.
His successor in the archbishopric was an enemy to the
Jansenists, and for that reason promoted to the see by the
court. Yet 22 rectors or cur�s of Paris, with infinite
earnestness, press him to examine those miracles, which they
assert to be known to the whole world, and undisputably
certain: But he wisely forbore.
The Molinist party had tried to discredit these miracles in one
instance, that of Mademoiselle le Franc. But, besides that
their proceedings were in many respects the most irregular in
the world, particularly in citing only a few of the Jansenist
witnesses, whom they tampered with: Besides this, I say, they
soon found themselves overwhelmed by a cloud of new witnesses,
one hundred and twenty in number, most of them persons of
credit and substance in Paris, who gave oath for the miracle.
This was accompanied with a solemn and earnest appeal to the
parliament. But the parliament were forbidden by authority to
meddle in the affair. It was at last observed, that where men
are heated by zeal and enthusiasm, there is no degree of human
testimony so strong as may not be procured for the greatest
absurdity: And those who will be so silly as to examine the
affair by that medium, and seek particular flaws in the
testimony, are almost sure to be confounded. It must be a
miserable imposture, indeed, that does not prevail in
that contest.
All who have been in France about that time have heard of the
reputation of Mons. Heraut, the lieutenant de Police, whose
vigilance, penetration, activity, and extensive intelligence
have been much talked of. This magistrate, who by the nature of
his office is almost absolute, was vested with full powers, on
purpose to suppress or discredit these miracles; and he
frequently seized immediately, and examined the witnesses and
subjects of them: But never could reach any thing satisfactory
against them.
In the case of Mademoiselle Thibaut he sent the famous De Sylva
to examine her; whose evidence is very curious. The physician
declares, that it was impossible she could have been so ill as
was proved by witnesses; because it was impossible she could,
in so short a time, have recovered so perfectly as he found
her. He reasoned, like a man of sense, from natural causes; but
the opposite party told him, that the whole was a miracle, and
that his evidence was the very best proof of it.
The Molinists were in a sad dilemma. They durst not assert the
absolute insufficiency of human evidence, to prove a miracle.
They were obliged to say, that these miracles were wrought by
witchcraft and the devil. But they were told, that this was the
resource of the Jews of old.
No Jansenist was ever embarrassed to account for the cessation
of the miracles, when the church-yard was shut up by the king’s
edict. It was the touch of the tomb, which produced these
extraordinary effects; and when no one could approach the tomb,
no effects could be expected. God, indeed, could have thrown
down the walls in a moment; but he is master of his own graces
and works, and it belongs not to us to account for them. He did
not throw down the walls of every city like those of Jericho,
on the sounding of the rams horns, nor break up the prison of
every apostle, like that of St. Paul.
No less a man, than the Due de Chatillon, a duke and peer of
France, of the highest rank and family, gives evidence of a
miraculous cure, performed upon a servant of his, who had lived
several years in his house with a visible and palpable
infirmity. I shall conclude with observing, that no clergy are
more celebrated for strictness of life and manners than the
secular clergy of France, particularly the rectors or cur�s of
Paris, who bear testimony to these impostures. The learning,
genius, and probity of the gentlemen, and the austerity of the
nuns of Port-Royal, have been much celebrated all over Europe.
Yet they all give evidence for a miracle, wrought on the niece
of the famous Pascal, whose sanctity of life, as well as
extraordinary capacity, is well known. The famous Racine gives
an account of this miracle in his famous history of Port-Royal,
and fortifies it with all the proofs, which a multitude of
nuns, priests, physicians, and men of the world, all of them of
undoubted credit, could bestow upon it. Several men of letters,
particularly the bishop of Tournay, thought this miracle so
certain, as to employ it in the refutation of atheists and
free-thinkers. The queen-regent of France, who was extremely
prejudiced against the Port-Royal, sent her own physician to
examine the miracle, who returned an absolute convert. In
short, the supernatural cure was so uncontestable, that it
saved, for a time, that famous monastery from the ruin with
which it was threatened by the Jesuits. Had it been a cheat, it
had certainly been detected by such sagacious and powerful
antagonists, and must have hastened the ruin of the contrivers.
Our divines, who can build up a formidable castle from such
despicable materials; what a prodigious fabric could they have
reared from these and many other circumstances, which I have
not mentioned! How often would the great names of Pascal,
Racine, Amaud, Nicole, have resounded in our ears? But if they
be wise, they had better adopt the miracle, as being more
worth, a thousand times, than all the rest of the collection.
Besides, it may serve very much to their purpose. For that
miracle was really performed by the touch of an authentic holy
prickle of the holy thorn, which composed the holy crown,
which, &c.
97. Is the consequence just, because some human testimony has the utmost
force and authority in some cases, when it relates the battle of
Philippi or Pharsalia for instance; that therefore all kinds of
testimony must, in all cases, have equal force and authority? Suppose
that the Caesarean and Pompeian factions had, each of them, claimed the
victory in these battles, and that the historians of each party had
uniformly ascribed the advantage to their own side; how could mankind,
at this distance, have been able to determine between them? The
contrariety is equally strong between the miracles related by Herodotus
or Plutarch, and those delivered by Mariana, Bede, or any monkish
historian.
The wise lend a very academic faith to every report which favours the
passion of the reporter; whether it magnifies his country, his family,
or himself, or in any other way strikes in with his natural inclinations
and propensities. But what greater temptation than to appear a
missionary, a prophet, an ambassador from heaven? Who would not
encounter many dangers and difficulties, in order to attain so sublime a
character? Or if, by the help of vanity and a heated imagination, a man
has first made a convert of himself, and entered seriously into the
delusion; who ever scruples to make use of pious frauds, in support of
so holy and meritorious a cause?
The smallest spark may here kindle into the greatest flame; because the
materials are always prepared for it. The avidum genus auricularum[25],
the gazing populace, receive greedily, without examination, whatever
sooths superstition, and promotes wonder.
[25] Lucret.
How many stories of this nature have, in all ages, been detected and
exploded in their infancy? How many more have been celebrated for a
time, and have afterwards sunk into neglect and oblivion? Where such
reports, therefore, fly about, the solution of the phenomenon is
obvious; and we judge in conformity to regular experience and
observation, when we account for it by the known and natural principles
of credulity and delusion. And shall we, rather than have a recourse to
so natural a solution, allow of a miraculous violation of the most
established laws of nature?
I need not mention the difficulty of detecting a falsehood in any
private or even public history, at the place, where it is said to
happen; much more when the scene is removed to ever so small a distance.
Even
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