grounds the possibility or actual occurrence of any subsequent phenomena of the kind. That is a question of evidence, and, as Mr. Lecky goes on to observe, "very few of the minor facts of history are authenticated by as much evidence as" some of those later miracles which he specifies, to one of which, by no means a favorite with Ultramontanes, we may have occasion to refer presently. But there are few subjects on which ordinary persons, even educated persons, have such loose notions as on the true nature of evidence, or where the wish, whether it be an innate feeling of sympathy or of antipathy, is so apt to become father to the thought. And now we may proceed without further preface to reproduce the main details of the marvelous tale brought from Marpingen, a village in Rhenish Prussia, in July, 1876, and which formed the text of a long debate in the Prussian Parliament a fortnight aero.
It appears that on two successive days, July 3d and 4th, three little girls of the village of Marpingen announced that they had seen the Virgin with her infant Son, sitting on the ground in a neighboring wood, and on the second of these days she replied to their questions, "I am she who was conceived without sin, and you should pray and pray forever." On the third day the apparition was again visible and discoursed to the children for some time, while a crowd, who had followed them from the village kept apart reverentially from the hallowed spot, the apparition being visible and audible to the three little girls only. It was explained that this peculiar privilege was vouchsafed to them because they were "the only innocent persons in the wood," and the apparition expressly declined to see any of the neighboring priests, but ordered a chapel to be built on the spot from the proceeds of a public subscription. She finally, at their request, permitted an invalid to be brought by the children to touch her feet, though he also never saw her, and he was instantly cured. After this crowds came to spend the night praying and singing in the wood, two or three of whom declared that they saw the Virgin amid the trees, and the children were kept constantly employed in laying the hands of the sick on the feet of the invisible figure. They apparently, however, found this burden too great for them, for a few days later they announced that the water of a neighboring spring had been endowed with miraculous properties, and might be conveyed to those who were unable to come themselves, and thenceforth the concourse of pilgrims increased. Hereupon the civil authorities interfered, whether on account of disturbances caused by the multitudes who congregated in the forest, or from a fear that the miracle was intended to be utilized for purposes of agitation against the Government. On July 13th, ten days after the first apparition, the Burgomaster of Marpingen ordered the people to leave the wood, and on their refusal had it cleared by the military; from that time it was guarded by police and soldiers quartered in the village, where the inhabitants complain that forced requisitions were
