the very life of Egypt depended. He could turn it into blood. All
Egypt was at his mercy.

But Pharaoh would not believe that. 'The magicians did likewise
with their enchantments'--made, we may suppose, water seem to turn
to blood by some juggling trick at which the priests in Egypt were
but too well practised; and Pharaoh seemed to have made up his mind
that Moses' miracle was only a juggling trick too. For men will
make up their minds to anything, however absurd, when they choose to
do so: when their pride, and rage, and obstinacy, and covetousness,
draw them one way, no reason will draw them the other way. They
will find reasons, and make reasons to prove, if need be, that there
is no sun in the sky.

Then followed a series of plagues, of which we have all often heard.

Learned men have disputed how far these plagues were miracles. Some
of them are said not to be uncommon in Egypt, others to be almost
unknown. But whether they--whether the frogs, for instance, were
not produced by natural causes, just as other frogs are; and the
lice and the flies likewise; that I know not, my friends, neither
need I know. If they were not, they were miraculous; and if they
were, they were miraculous still. If they came as other vermin
come, they would have still been miraculous: God would still have
sent them; and it would be a miracle that God should make them come
at that particular time in that particular country, to work a truly
miraculous effect upon the souls of Pharaoh and the Egyptians on the
one hand, and of Moses and the Israelites on the other. But if they
came by some strange means as no vermin ever came before or since,
all I can say is--Why not?