This instance of thunder is a type of the revolution
■of. thought which has been brought about by modern
science in the whole manner of viewing the phenomena
of the surrounding universe. Former ages saw miracles
everywhere, the age in which we live sees them nowhere,

B 2



244 MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT.
except possibly in the single instance of the miracles

recorded in the Bible. In the annals of grave Eoman

historians,

In every page locutus los.
Not a Caesar or a Consul died, without an ox speaking,
or a flaming sword in the skies predicting portents. If
the moon happened to pass between the sun and the
earth the dim eclipse

Witli fear of change perplexes monarchs.
If the winds blow it is because ^olus releases them
from the cave ; if the rains fall it is because Jupiter
opens the windows of heaven, or Indra causes the
cloud- cows to drop their milk on the parched earth.
Perhaps no better proof can be afforded of the universal
belief that miracles were considered matters of every-day
occurrence than is given by the passage in St. Paul's
Epistle to the Corinthians, in which he enumerates the
principal Christian gifts, and assigns, as it were, their
comparative order and the number of marks that should
be given to each in a competitive examination.
