Men insensibly cease to perceive a connexion between the existence of a God, and the different miracles with which we are surrounded; but all would be changed, if God exhibited the numerous acts of his power successively, instead of displaying them all at once; our imagination, animated by such a movement, would rise to the idea of a Supreme Being; it is then, because an accumulation of wonders aggrandizes the universe; it is because a harmony, not to be equalled, seems to convert an infinity of parts into an admirable whole; and that profound wisdom maintains it in an immutable equilibrium; it is, in short, because insensible gradations and delicate shades render still more perfect the wonders of nature, that men are less struck with astonishment, or lost in adoration. We want, say you, new phœnomena to determine our persuasion: do you forget, that all which is offered to our view already surpasses our understanding? If the least miracle was to be effected before you, you would be ready to bend your proud reason; but because the most grand and wonderful, which the imagination itself can form an idea of, has preceded your existence, you receive no impression from it, all appears simple to you, all necessary. But, the reality of the wonders of the universe has nothing to do with the instant you are allowed to contemplate them: your pilgrimage on earth, is it not a period imperceptible in the midst of eternity? admiration, surprise, and all the affections of which man is susceptible, do not change the nature of the phœnomena which surround him; and his intelligence reflects but a very small part of the wonders of the universe. We have no need of a revolution in the order of nature, to discover the power of its author; the fibres of a blade of grass confound our intelligence, and when we have grown old in study and observation, we continually discover new objects, which we have not investigated, and perceive new relations; we are ever in the midst of unknown things and incomprehensible secrets. However, supposing, for a moment, the existence of extraordinary miracles which we should be impressed with; it is easy to conceive, that these miracles would not have on men the influence we presume; for if they were frequent, and if they happened only at regular periods, their first impression, would slowly be weakened, and, at last, men would range them in the class of the successive movements of eternal matter. But if, on the contrary, there was a long interval between these miracles, the generations who succeeded the actual witnesses of them would accuse their ancestors of credulity, or contest the truth of those traditions, which transmitted the account of a revolution contrary to the common course of nature.