[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOE."] SIR, — Mr. A. B.
Sharpe says (Spectator, April 18th) that "since Huxley could find no evidence of the existence of a divine Creator, it follows that the occurrence of miracles in the sense understood by Christians was in his opinion im- possible." But does it so follow ? Huxley did not regard "the miraculous intervention of a higher power" as impossible; and that Mr. Sharpe is not justified in his argu- ment is, I think, clear from the following passage from Huxley's "An Episcopal Trilogy"
"No one is entitled to say a priori that any given so-called miraculous event is impossible; and no one is entitled to say a priori that prayer for some change in the ordinary course of
nature cannot possibly avail The belief in the efficacy of prayer depends upon the assumption that there is somebody, somewhere, who is strong enough to deal with the earth and its contents as men deal with the things and events which they are strong enough to modify or control ; and who is capable of being moved by appeals such as men make to one another It is not upon any a priori considera- tions that objections, either to the supposed efficacy of prayer in modifying the course of events, or to the supposed occurrence of miracles, can be scientifically based. The real objection, and, to my mind, the fatal objection, to both these suppositions, is the inadequacy of the evidence to prove any given case of such occurrences which has been adduced. It is a canon of common sense, to say nothing of science, that the more improbable a supposed occurrence, the more cogent ought to be the evidence in its favour. I have looked somewhat carefully into the subject, and I am unable to find in the records of any miraculous event evidence which even approximates to the fulfil- ment of this requirement."
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