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CHAPTER II.
But they with whom we argue have undoubtedly a right to select their own
examples. The instances with which Mr. Hume has chosen to confront the
miracles of the New Testament, and which, therefore, we are entitled to
regard as the strongest which the history of the world could supply to
the inquiries of a very acute and learned adversary, are the three
following:
I. The cure of a blind and of a lame man of Alexandria, by the emperor
Vespasian, as related by Tacitus;
II. The restoration of the limb of an attendant in a Spanish church, as
told by Cardinal de Retz; and,
III. The cures said to be performed at the tomb of the abbe Paris in the
early part of the eighteenth century.
I. The narrative of Tacitus is delivered in these terms: "One of the
common people of Alexandria, known to be diseased in his eyes, by the
admonition of the god Serapis, whom that superstitious nation worship
above all other gods, prostrated himself before the emperor, earnestly
imploring from him a remedy for his blindness, and entreating that he
would deign to anoint with his spittle his cheeks and the balls of his
eyes.
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