The " miracle of the taper," therefore, if truly reported, may show that Bernadette was a "medium," but cannot fairly be used to prove the action of the Virgin Mary. Still less safe would it be to appeal to the ecstasies themselves as proving the divine character of their inspiring cause. Here, again, Mr. Daniel Home also had his ecstasies, controlled by "guides" who were quite as sensitive to human incredulity as better-authorised saints might have been. " Little faith! " they would exclaim, " little faith! Will you not trust in Dan ? "

And this brings us to the second point marked out for our discussion. What connection is to be discerned between the visions of Bernadette and the cures subsequently occurring at Lourdes?

In the first place, it may be observed that the original words of the message make no mention whatever of physical healing. On the contrary, the Virgin expressly states that the happiness which she promises is to be enjoyed in the next world, and not in this. What she apparently aims at in this world is worship for herself: "I want people to come," "I want people to come in procession." There was also, indeed, a direction to wash in the stream, and to drink of it, [and to eat the grass growing on its banks]. Whether Bernadette, or any one else, did eat it is not quite clear. And why they were to eat it, why they were to wash in the stream, is still more mysterious.... But we need hardly perhaps further analyse the somewhat incoherent message which has since been made to mean so much more than its actual words will carry.

A quarryman of the name of Bourriette, however (Boissarie, p. 99), conceived the idea that the water of the spring in the grotto might with advantage be applied to his eyes, injured by an explosion. The alleged good effects of the water, in this and other cases among the neighbouring peasantry, started the long series of cures with which we shall presently have to deal.

The connection between these cures and the Virgin Mary lies in almost all cases in the subjective conviction of the sufferer that he will be cured at Lourdes, and that the Virgin's aid will do it. Sometimes, no doubt, his conviction may be reinforced by a dream, as when Mustapha, a Mussulman in Constantinople, dreamt that a lady in white told him that she was the Virgin adored by the Georgian Fathers in that city; in whose chapel, in fact, water from Lourdes is distributed gratis. Mustapha's right eye, which he had com-pletement perdu - "lost altogether," was radicalement guéri - "completely cured" (we are told) when he awoke, and Dr. Boissarie concludes (p. 237) that "Our Lady of Lourdes seems to have commenced the religious reformation of the East...".

We have not in analogous cases considered that subjective evidence of this kind, even when backed up by definite assertions of identity and continuous action on the part of some unseen agent, did really constitute a proof that that agent was at work. We have regarded it as still possible, and even probable, that the effects were produced by self-suggestion, and that the alleged Spirit or Guardian was no more than a form in which the self-suggestion clothed itself.

An excellent account of the religious history and experiences of Bernadette - written from the point of view of a devout Catholic - is J. B. Estradés Les Apparitions de Lourdes: Souvenirs intimes d'un Temoin (Tours, 1899). M. Estrade was a resident of Lourdes; he several times witnessed the ecstasies of Bernadette, and personally investigated the whole case with great care. He does not, however, bring forward any evidence to show that the apparitions were veridical, and the account of the burning taper which he gives as quoted from Dr. Dozous is less remarkable than Dr. Boissariés narrative of the same incident. Bernadette, he says (p. 151), was holding her rosary in her left hand, and in the right a large lighted taper. "Suddenly the right hand, approaching the left, placed the flame of the large taper under the fingers of the latter, which were so far apart that the flame could easily pass between them. Blown about at the moment by a rather strong current of air, it did not appear to produce any effect on the skin that it touched." This went on for a quarter of an hour, and on examining the hand before Bernadette left the place, Dr. Dozous found no trace of burning on it.

M. Estrade states that on another occasion his own sister saw the fingers of Bernadette resting on the flame of a taper.