with the great Russian delusion of last August and September.


* * * * *


Now it is possible that some persons, judging by the tone of these
remarks of mine, may gather the impression that I am a profound
disbeliever in the possibility of any intervention of the
super-physical order in the affairs of the physical order. They will
be mistaken if they make this inference; they will be mistaken if they
suppose that I think miracles in Judæa credible but miracles in France
or Flanders incredible. I hold no such absurdities. But I confess,
very frankly, that I credit none of the "Angels of Mons" legends,
partly because I see, or think I see, their derivation from my own
idle fiction, but chiefly because I have, so far, not received one jot
or tittle of evidence that should dispose me to belief. It is idle,
indeed, and foolish enough for a man to say: "I am sure that story is
a lie, because the supernatural element enters into it;" here, indeed,
we have the maggot writhing in the midst of corrupted offal denying
the existence of the sun. But if this fellow be a fool--as he is--
equally foolish is he who says, "If the tale has anything of the
supernatural it is true, and the less evidence the better;" and I am
afraid this tends to be the attitude of many who call themselves
occultists. I hope that I shall never get to that frame of mind. So I
say, not that super-normal interventions are impossible, not that they
have not happened during this war--I know nothing as to that point,
one way or the other--but that there is not one atom of evidence (so
far) to support the current stories of the angels of Mons. For, be it
remarked, these stories are specific stories. They rest on the second,