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Philomythus, an antidote against credulity
Philomythus an antidote against credulity Author:Edwin Abbott Abbott Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: good judge ; one, at least, on which Newman himself justly lays the greatest stress, because of (381) its "completeness," (382) "the opportunity of testimony," (... more »384) "its entireness," (385) its "permanence," (380) the "variety, consistency, and unity" of the testimony, and that too " from eye-witnesses of the miracle "—will be found to be given up ; but neither in the edition of 1870 nor in that of 1890 is any substitute provided. Were we dealing with ordinary men, we should be almost compelled to attribute such conduct as this to tergiversation. But against Newman it is impossible not only to substantiate such a charge, but even to imagine that it could be brought by any rational being acquainted with his character. It is simply a contempt for facts—a contempt so great that he might, without much exaggeration, be said almost to prefer to believe in a miracle that is unsupported, rather than in one that is supported, by a basis of facts; and he hardly conceals his contempt for the Protestant reader who cannot help asking for evidence. § 4. The Argument from Potentiality Hence arises the great danger of Newman's position. It is this, that, though he is dealing with facts, and is tempted to alter and suppress inconvenient facts, he can yet place himself beyond the appeal to facts—so far as concerns their miraculousness. As to some of the faults mentioned above, grave though they are, there might be nevertheless some hope. A man who has been guilty merely of omissions, neglects, or misconceptions, you might possibly hope to convince of his errors. But the fatal characteristic of Newman's position is that, even when he has made all these admissions, he can still fall back upon areserve which is absolutely impregnable to the attacks of common sense. Newman was in no sense a st...« less