[[433]] Hosea iv. 12.
[[434]] Aug. lib. xiv. de Civit. Dei, c. 24.
[[435]] Galen. de Differ. Sympt.
[[436]] By M. Fransquin Chanoine de Taul.
[[437]] Ludov. Vives, lib. i. de Veritate Fidei, p. 540.
CHAPTER XLIX.
THE SECRETS OF PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY TAKEN FOR SUPERNATURAL THINGS.
It is possible to allege against my reasoning the secrets of physics and chemistry, which produce an infinity of wonderful effects, and appear beyond the power of natural agency. We have the composition of a phosphorus, with which they write; the characters do not appear by daylight, but in the dark we see them shine; with this phosphorus, figures can be traced which would surprise and even alarm during the night, as has been done more than once, apparently to cause maliciously useless fright. La poudre ardente is another phosphorus, which, provided it is exposed to the air, sheds a light both by night and by day. How many people have been frightened by those little worms which are found in certain kinds of rotten wood, and which give a brilliant flame by night.
We have the daily experience of an infinite number of things, all of them natural, which appear above the ordinary course of nature,[[438]] but which have nothing miraculous in them, and ought not to be attributed to angels or demons; for instance, teeth and noses taken from other persons, and applied to those who have lost similar parts; of this we find many instances in authors. These teeth and noses fall off directly when the person from whom they were taken dies, however great the distance between these two persons may be.