[18] "I desire any one to lay his hand upon his heart, and after serious consideration declare whether he thinks that the falsehood of such a book, supported by such testimony, would be more extraordinary and miraculous than all the miracles it relates."—_Hume's Essay on Miracles_, p. 200, 12mo; p. 206, 8vo, 1767; p. 131, 8vo, 1817. Let it be borne in mind that Hume (as I have above remarked) continually employs the term "miracle" and "prodigy" to signify anything that is highly _improbable_ and _extraordinary._ [19] "The wise lend a very academic faith to every report which favours the passion of the reporter, whether it magnifies his _country_, his family, or himself."—_Hume's Essay on Miracles_, p. 144, 12mo; p. 200, 8vo, 1767; p. 126, 8vo, 1817. [20] "Nothing can be more contrary than such a philosophy (the academic or sceptical) to the supine indolence of the mind, its rash arrogance, its lofty pretensions, and its superstitious credulity."—_Fifth Essay_, p. 68, 12mo; p. 41, 8vo, 1817. [21] See _Hume's Essay on Miracles_, pp. 189, 191, 195, 12mo; pp. 193, 197, 201, 202, 8vo, 1767; pp. 124, 125, 126, 8vo, 1817. [22] See _Edinburgh Review_ for October, 1842, p. 162. [23] It is well know with how much learning and ingenuity the Rationalists of the German school have laboured to throw discredit on the literal interpretation of the narratives, both of the Old and the New Testaments; representing them as MYTHS, i.e., fables allegorically describing some physical or moral phænomena—philosophical principles—systems, &c.—under the figure of actions performed by certain ideal personages; these allegories having been, afterwards, through the mistake of the vulgar, believed as history. Thus, the real historical existence of such a person as the supposed founder of the Christian religion, and the acts attributed to him, are denied in the literal sense, and the whole of the evangelical history is explained on the "mythical" theory. Now it is a remarkable circumstance in reference to the point at present before us, that an eminent authoress of this century has distinctly declared that Napoleon Buonaparte was NOT A MAN, but a SYSTEM. [24] Germaniæ vocabulum recens et nuper additum; quoniam qui primi Rhenum transgressi Gallos expulerint, ac nunc Tungri, tunc Germani vocati sint: ita nationis nomen in nomen gentis evaluisse paullatim, ut omnes, primum a victore ob metum, mox a seipsis invento nomine, Germani vocarentur.—_Tacitus, de Mor. Germ._ * * * * * POSTSCRIPT TO THE THIRD EDITION.