II. The story taken from the Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz, which is the
second example alleged by Mr. Hume, is this: "In the church of Saragossa
in Spain, the canons showed me a man whose business it was to light the
lamps; telling me, that he had been several years at the gate with one
leg only. I saw him with two." (Liv. iv. A.D. 1654.)
It is stated by Mr. Hume, that the cardinal who relates this story did
not believe it; and it nowhere appears that he either examined the limb,
or asked the patient, or indeed any one, a single question about the
matter. An artificial leg, wrought with art, would be sufficient, in a
place where no such contrivance had ever before been heard of, to give
origin and currency to the report. The ecclesiastics of the place would,
it is probable, favour the story, inasmuch as it advanced the honour of
their image and church. And if they patronized it, no other person at
Saragossa, in the middle of the last century, would care to dispute it.
The story likewise coincided not less with the wishes and preconceptions
of the people than with the interests of their ecclesiastical rulers: so
that there was prejudice backed by authority, and both operating upon
extreme ignorance, to account for the success of the imposture.
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