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The autobiography of Lord Herbert of Cherbury relates a remarkable vision, which is a noteworthy illustration of inconsistency. Lord Herbert did not believe in the divine origin of Christianity, and wrote a book against the credibility of the accounts of miracles in the Bible. When the manuscript was completed he exhibited it to Grotius and Tilenus, whom he met in France. They praised it much and exhorted him to publish it; but he foresaw that it would encounter opposition, and hesitated for some time. The history of what followed is given in his own words:

One fine day, about noon, my windows being open, I took my book, knelt down, and pronounced aloud these words: "O eternal God, creator of the light which illuminates me, thou who enlightenest souls when thou wouldst, tell me by a celestial sign if I should publish or suppress my work." I had hardly uttered these words than a loud but agreeable sound proceeded from heaven, which impressed me with such great joy that I felt convinced that my request was granted. Howsoever strange this may appear, I protest, before God, not only that I heard the sound, but saw, in the clearest sky on which I ever gazed, the spot whence it came. In consequence of this sign I published my book, and spread it throughout all Christian lands, amongst all the learned capable of reading and appreciating it.

This circumstance is of great importance. No doubt has ever been thrown upon the truth of the recital, which shows how a person not subject to hallucinations, under circumstances of deep meditation, or under the influence of strong desire and expectation, may generate an hallucination, which may be the only one that he will experience in the course of a lifetime, and leave no evil effects except the false inferences which, supposing it to be of supernatural origin, he will draw from it. It demonstrates also that the absence or the presence of any particular form of faith