definition should be made. The comparative study of religions has
gone far enough to admit of a comparison between the Ethnic
religions and that which had its birth in Palestine--the religion
of the Jews and Christians. Obviously, at the first blush, there
is a difference: and that difference constitutes what we mean by
Revelation. Let us have this as yet very imperfectly known
quantity scientifically ascertained, without any attempt either to
minimise or to exaggerate. I mean, let the field which Mr. Matthew
Arnold has lately been traversing with much of his usual insight
but in a light and popular manner, be seriously mapped out and
explored. Pioneers have been at work, such as Dr. Kuenen, but not
perhaps quite without a bias: let the same enquiry be taken up so
widely as that the effects of bias may be eliminated; and instead
of at once accepting the first crude results, let us wait until
they are matured by time. This would be really fruitful and
productive, and a positive addition to knowledge; but reasoning
such as that in 'Supernatural Religion' is vitiated at the outset,
because it starts with the assumption that we know perfectly well
the meaning of a term of which our actual conception is vague and
indeterminate in the extreme--Divine Revelation. [Endnote 10:1]

With these reservations as to the main drift and bearing of the
argument, we may however meet the author of 'Supernatural Religion'
on his own ground. It is a part of the question--though a more
subordinate part apparently than he seems to suppose--to decide
whether miracles did or did not really happen. Even of this part
too it is but quite a minor subdivision that is included in the
two volumes of his work that have hitherto appeared. In the first
place, merely as a matter of historical attestation, the Gospels
are not the strongest evidence for the Christian miracles. Only