According to this view, the Deity exerted himself by
a _perpetual miracle_ to bring about the mental changes corresponding to
the physical agents operating on our senses--light, sound, &c. Now in
the mode of action suggested there is nothing self-contradictory; but in
the use of the word "miracle" there is a mistake of relativity. The
meaning of a miracle is an exceptional interference; it supposes an
habitual state of things, from which it is a deviation. The very idea of
miracle is abolished if every act is to be alike miraculous.
* * * * *
[MYSTERY CORRELATES WITH THE INTELLIGIBLE.]
We shall devote the remainder of this exposition to a still more notable
class of mistakes due to the suppression of a correlative member in a
relative couple--those, namely, connected with the designation,
"Mystery," a term greatly abused, in various ways, and especially by
disregarding its relative character. Mystery supposes certain things
that are plain, intelligible, knowable, revealed; and, by contrast to
these, refers to certain other things that are obscure, unintelligible,
unknowable, unrevealed. When a man's conduct is entirely plain,
straightforward, or accounted for, we call that an intelligible case;
when we are perplexed by the tortuosities of a crafty, double-dealing
person, we say it is all very mysterious.
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