Essays on the Foundation and Publication of Opinions, and on other Subjects. Essays of the Pursuit of Truth, on the Progress of Knowledge, and the Fundamental Principles of all Evidence and Expectation. [pp. 394-428]

and Pursuit of Truth.
by the king and all his courtiers and officers, and by the vast
multitude assembled from all the provinces of his empire to
worship the golden image which he had erected. A solitary
man may be deceived even by his own senses; or rather, ]is
nervous system may be so deranged, that hlie may take his
own imaginations for realities; or the visual organ may be
diseased, or the medium through which the light is transmitted may be deceptive; but when we find thousands of people
concurring wvith us in the impression made on their senses,
then we are sure that we are not mocked by an apparition, or
mere illusion. In the case just stated, the fact was of a nature to be judged of by all; and all are supposed to have seen
these men cast into the fiery furnace. We ask, whether in
such circumstances any man could disbelieve or doubt? No
one will assert it. True, some philosopher might have made
a wise speech on the occasion, and might have reasoned abstrusely respecting cause and effect, and the invariable uniformity of causation; he might have cautioned the king and
all his counsellors, an(i the people, not to give credit to what
they saw, for it could not be true, since it contradicted an acknowledged axiom; and even if the evidence of their senses
appeared ever so clear and Convincing, it ought to have no
other effect than to bring their minds to an exact equipoise,
or perfect suspense of all belief; because the evidence on the
other side was equally strong and convincing, being no other
than a self-evident truth, to disbelieve which would be "a
logical absurdity." What effect may we suppose such philo.
sophieal reasoning would have had, when arrayed against the
plain testimony of all the senses?
But it may be alleged, that neither Mr. Hume nor his
anonymous disciple has asserted, that we could not believe
in a miiracle, if we had(l such a fact fairly exhibited before our
eyes. This is true; they have not extended their principle so far; but we aver, and think we have proved, that it is
as applicable to the evidence of the senses as of testimony.
To bring the matter, however, to the very point, on which
they are desirous that it should bear; let us suppose that
Daniel had been absent on the king's business, but arriving
just at the n,lose of the wotnderflul scene, he hears the same
testimony from the king and his counsellors. The men themselves being his particular friends, he interrogates them, and
hears a full report of their wonderful deliverance firom
the power of the fire, of the fate of thle men who cast
them into the furnace. If mere testimony could have
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