The action of similar principles produces in man the love of the extraordinary, the unusual and the novel. This is so powerful that unless it is kept in subordination to reason, it produces a number of fictitious beliefs. So strong is it, that it may be truly said of large numbers of mankind that they spend all the time which they are not compelled to devote to the serious realities of life, in little else than hearing and speaking of some new thing. It is undoubtedly the cause of a large number of fictitious beliefs, and produces, in minds where the rational powers are weak, a ready acceptance of the unusual, the strange, and the wonderful. The same principle, acting in conjunction with others, when uncontrolled by reason, has occasioned many of the exaggerations which are to be found in history. Still, as one of the fundamental principles of our minds, it cannot but have a legitimate sphere of action. United with curiosity, it is the chief source of all mental activity. It is that which produces the earnest desire to penetrate into the regions of the unknown. As such, it is essential to the activity of our rational faculties, and has been the exciting cause which has rendered all our great discoveries possible. It follows, therefore, that if these principles form part of our mental constitution, the objection that they destroy the value of miracles as a testimony to a revelation is absurd. We might as well argue that because the love of the marvellous has generated a belief in a number of fictions as facts in ordinary history, it invalidates its testimony to events which have really happened, or renders all unusual occurrences incredible. I will illustrate this by an example. Herodotus tells us in his history that there were certain tribes who dwelt in wooden habitations erected over lakes, and he gives us several particulars as to their manner of life. This fact, until a comparatively recent period, might have been pronounced incredible, and have been supposed to have originated in the simple love of the marvellous, either in the author or in his informants. I own that when I first read the historian, this was the opinion which I formed respecting it. But we now know that he reported an actual fact. On the other hand it is certain that a great portion of the details of the Scythian expedition of Darius must have originated in the undue activity of the mental faculties to which I have referred, _i.e._ that they are inventions. But if the principle of summarily rejecting narratives of events which lie beyond our experience is valid, because the abnormal activity of certain faculties has urged men to invent, and believe in a multitude of fictions, the account of the lake‐dwellings given by the historian ought to have been rejected as equally unworthy of credit, with some of the occurrences of the Scythian expedition. It is impossible to deal with the events of history on any general _à priori_ principles; they