The Apparitions and Miracles at Knock; also, the Official Depositions of the Eye-witnesses

story when singly examined regarding the vision, the time,
place, and circumstances ? They differ, it is true, in minor
and special outlines, as all men will, in giving an account of
the same event ; but they tell in substance and in integrity of
detail the same story. No other conclusion can, therefore,
be arrived at regarding the first Apparition than that it actu
ally has occurred. Let men of learning account for it as
they like.
Other Conjectures groundless.
The non-believing individuals describe the appearance,
either as (i) a miracle; or (z) the effect of reflected light; or
j) some kind of magic-lantern proceeding ; or (4) the effect
of phosphorus ; or of (5) electric or magnetic currents; or
(6) natural miasmatic gustations from the earth below, arising
perhaps, from a stratification of coal or of petroleum some
thirty or fifty feet under the surface. The vision, or the
luminous appearances, could not come from reflected lights ;
for, as a rule, and as a matter of science, mirages are seen
in the clouds, and not at the gables of a house, and they never
continue longer than a few moments, like a rainbow, jus"1
only while the sun is shining on a certain point. Now, in
the first vision at Knock, the Apparitions continued for hours,
and was seen both before the sun had fully gone down, and
after it had set, in day time and in night time, and that for a
lengthened period. What regarding the effects of a magic
lantern ? Anyone who has seen the place can behold at a
glance that to produce images on the wall at Knock Chapel
by magic lanterns is simply impossible. The nearest point
at which a performer could stand is distant thirty yards from
the gable, and no lens and no electric light known to scientists
at the present day can cast fully defined likenesses the size of