of men as locked up in it. While the supernatural becomes more rather than less manifest in the progress of truth, its extreme expression in miracles plays a different part in different phases of development. Nor is this fact out of harmony with the general method of organic and intellectual growth. Higher forms of life constantly supersede lower ones. The offspring is first embraced in the parent, and then passes into an independent form. Reason adds itself to instinct, and later crowds it out. Indeed, the existence of an era of miracles and its disappearance under the action of rational forces of broader scope, is a relation in harmony with evolution, unless we insist on an evolution that excludes all supernatural forces. A miracle is milk for the child; it belongs to a stage of partial knowledge and obscure perceptions. Miracles can no more take the place of rational insight than crutches of sound limbs, though like crutches they may help one on the way to health. The disposition to seek for signs is one implying the weakness of reason. As the natural and the supernatural gain in the mind their true relation to each other, as the one is felt to be everywhere permeated with the other, and to be its true expression, the need of the miracle and the fitness of the miracle pass away. When knowledge is as yet incipient, and the mind is unable to grasp firmly both its terms, the miracle may help it forward and open a passage for truths that would otherwise be lost. When the mind is confusedly seeking for reasons, like one groping in darkness, even then flashes of light have a service. Yet they