Again, Martyn's references to alchemy (p. 82) and to magic (p. 85) placed his
argument upon a false position, which his adversary did not fail to turn to
advantage (pp. 203-5). His reply, too (p. 93), is faulty where he says, that to
suppose the evidence of miracles to diminish with the lapse of time, would be to
imply that a person at sixty has lost part of the conviction as to any fact
which he possessed at twenty: the Mirza replies that the cases are not
parallel,one involving personal identity, the other a succession of
individuals. He also takes up a weak position (p. 104), when he refutes the
miracles of Mohammed by the circumstance that some of them are said to have been
performed while he was yet an unbeliever, which at most would prove but little.
Mirza Ruza resents the imputation, and devotes fifteen pages (p. 253) to show
that the passages produced by his opponent do not refer to belief; "’Then
writ in error, and I have directed thee,' that is to say, the religion of Jesus
was with