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Oh My JS
The Best JavaScript Articles

Azat Mardan
This book is for sale at http://leanpub.com/ohmyjs

This version was published on 2014-05-28

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©2013 - 2014 Azat Mardan

Tweet This Book!
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Also By Azat Mardan
Rapid Prototyping with JS
Express.js Guide
JavaScript and Node FUNdamentals
To God, My Teachers and Vladimir Nabokov
Contents

JavaScript Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The World’s Most Misunderstood Programming Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Understanding JavaScript Function Invocation and “this” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Code Conventions for the JavaScript Programming Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Semicolons in JavaScript are optional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Patterns and Code Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Common JavaScript “Gotchas” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Asynchronous JS: Callbacks, Listeners, Control Flow Libs and Promises . . . . . . . . . . . 35
The Design of Code: Organizing JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Why AMD? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
JavaScript Dependency Injection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
10 Must Have JavaScript Tools For Developers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Useful Node.js Tools, Tutorials And Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Control the Complexity of Your JavaScript Functions with JSHint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Leaner, Meaner, Faster Animations with requestAnimationFrame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Node.js . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Understanding event loops and writing great code for Node.js . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Callback Hell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Understanding Express.js . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

JavaScript Fundamentals
The World’s Most Misunderstood Programming
Language

Original Article
http://javascript.crockford.com/javascript.html
Douglas Crockford, crockford.com
http://crockford.com

JavaScript¹, aka Mocha, aka LiveScript, aka JScript, aka ECMAScript, is one of the world’s most
popular programming languages. Virtually every personal computer in the world has at least one
JavaScript interpreter installed on it and in active use. JavaScript’s popularity is due entirely to its
role as the scripting language of the WWW.
Despite its popularity, few know that JavaScript is a very nice dynamic object-oriented general-
purpose programming language. How can this be a secret? Why is this language so misunderstood?

The Name
The Java- prefix suggests that JavaScript is somehow related to Java, that it is a subset or less
capable version of Java. It seems that the name was intentionally selected to create confusion, and
from confusion comes misunderstanding. JavaScript is not interpreted Java. Java is interpreted Java.
JavaScript is a different language.
JavaScript has a syntactic similarity to Java, much as Java has to C. But it is no more a subset of Java
than Java is a subset of C. It is better than Java in the applications that Java (fka Oak) was originally
intended for.
JavaScript was not developed at Sun Microsystems, the home of Java. JavaScript was developed at
Netscape. It was originally called LiveScript, but that name wasn’t confusing enough.
The -Script suffix suggests that it is not a real programming language, that a scripting language
is less than a programming language. But it is really a matter of specialization. Compared to C,
JavaScript trades performance for expressive power and dynamism.
¹http://javascript.crockford.com/
JavaScript Fundamentals 2

Lisp in C’s Clothing

JavaScript’s C-like syntax, including curly braces and the clunky for statement, makes it appear to
be an ordinary procedural language. This is misleading because JavaScript has more in common
with functional languages like Lisp or Scheme² than with C or Java. It has arrays instead of lists and
objects instead of property lists. Functions are first class. It has closures. You get lambdas without
having to balance all those parens.

Typecasting
JavaScript was designed to run in Netscape Navigator. Its success there led to it becoming standard
equipment in virtually all web browsers. This has resulted in typecasting. JavaScript is the George
Reeves³ of programming languages. JavaScript is well suited to a large class of non-Web-related
applications

Moving Target
The first versions of JavaScript were quite weak. They lacked exception handling, inner functions,
and inheritance. In its present form, it is now a complete object-oriented programming language.
But many opinions of the language are based on its immature forms.
The ECMA committee that has stewardship over the language is developing extensions which, while
well intentioned, will aggravate one of the language’s biggest problems: There are already too many
versions. This creates confusion.

Design Errors
No programming language is perfect. JavaScript has its share of design errors, such as the
overloading of + to mean both addition and concatenation with type coercion, and the error-
prone with statement should be avoided. The reserved word policies are much too strict. Semicolon
insertion was a huge mistake, as was the notation for literal regular expressions. These mistakes
have led to programming errors, and called the design of the language as a whole into question.
Fortunately, many of these problems can be mitigated with a good lint⁴ program.
The design of the language on the whole is quite sound. Surprisingly, the ECMAScript committee
does not appear to be interested in correcting these problems. Perhaps they are more interested in
making new ones.
²http://javascript.crockford.com/little.html
³http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000KWZ7JC/wrrrldwideweb
⁴http://www.jslint.com/
JavaScript Fundamentals 3

Lousy Implementations
Some of the earlier implementations of JavaScript were quite buggy. This reflected badly on
the language. Compounding that, those implementations were embedded in horribly buggy web
browsers.

Bad Books
Nearly all of the books about JavaScript are quite awful. They contain errors, poor examples, and
promote bad practices. Important features of the language are often explained poorly, or left out
entirely. I have reviewed dozens of JavaScript books, andI can only recommend one: JavaScript:
The Definitive Guide (5th Edition)⁵ by David Flanagan. (Attention authors: If you have written a
good one, please send me a review copy.)

Substandard Standard
The official specification for the language⁶ is published by ECMA⁷. The specification is of extremely
poor quality. It is difficult to read and very difficult to understand. This has been a contributor to the
Bad Book problem because authors have been unable to use the standard document to improve their
own understanding of the language. ECMA and the TC39 committee should be deeply embarrassed.

Amateurs
Most of the people writing in JavaScript are not programmers. They lack the training and discipline
to write good programs. JavaScript has so much expressive power that they are able to do useful
things in it, anyway. This has given JavaScript a reputation of being strictly for the amateurs, that
it is not suitable for professional programming. This is simply not the case.

Object-Oriented
Is JavaScript object-oriented? It has objects which can contain data and methods that act upon that
data. Objects can contain other objects. It does not have classes, but it does have constructors which
do what classes do, including acting as containers for class variables and methods. It does not have
class-oriented inheritance, but it does have prototype-oriented inheritance.
The two main ways of building up object systems are by inheritance (is-a) and by aggregation (has-
a). JavaScript does both, but its dynamic nature allows it to excel at aggregation.
Some argue that JavaScript is not truly object oriented because it does not provide information
hiding. That is, objects cannot have private variables and private methods: All members are public.
⁵http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596101996/wrrrldwideweb
⁶http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-262.htm
⁷http://www.ecma-international.org/
JavaScript Fundamentals 4

But it turns out that JavaScript objects can have private variables and private methods. (Click
here now to find out how.)⁸ Of course, few understand this because JavaScript is the world’s most
misunderstood programming language.
Some argue that JavaScript is not truly object oriented because it does not provide inheritance. But
it turns out that JavaScript supports not only classical inheritance, but other code reuse patterns as
well.⁹
Copyright 2001 Douglas Crockford.¹⁰ All Rights Reserved Wrrrldwide.¹¹

Understanding JavaScript Function Invocation and

“this”

Original Article
http://yehudakatz.com/2011/08/11/understanding-javascript-function-invocation-and-this
Yehuda Katz, yehudakatz.com
.

Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of confusion about JavaScript function invocation. In particular, a lot
of people have complained that the semantics of this in function invocations is confusing.
In my opinion, a lot of this confusion is cleared up by understanding the core function invocation
primitive, and then looking at all other ways of invoking a function as sugar on top of that primitive.
In fact, this is exactly how the ECMAScript spec thinks about it. In some areas, this post is a
simplification of the spec, but the basic idea is the same.

The Core Primitive

First, let’s look at the core function invocation primitive, a Function’s call method[1]. The call
method is relatively straight forward.

1. Make an argument list (argList) out of parameters 1 through the end

2. The first parameter is thisValue
3. Invoke the function with this set to thisValue and the argList as its argument list

For example:
⁸http://www.crockford.com/javascript/private.html
⁹http://javascript.crockford.com/inheritance.html
¹⁰mailto:douglas@crockford.com
¹¹http://www.crockford.com/
 JavaScript Fundamentals 5

1 function hello(thing) {
2 console.log(this + " says hello " + thing);
3 }
4
5 hello.call("Yehuda", "world") //=> Yehuda says hello world

As you can see, we invoked the hello method with this set to "Yehuda" and a single argument
"world". This is the core primitive of JavaScript function invocation. You can think of all other
function calls as desugaring to this primitive. (to “desugar” is to take a convenient syntax and
describe it in terms of a more basic core primitive).
[1] In the ES5 spec¹², the call method is described in terms of another, more low level primitive, but
it’s a very thin wrapper on top of that primitive, so I’m simplifying a bit here. See the end of this post
for more information.

Simple Function Invocation

Obviously, invoking functions with call all the time would be pretty annoying. JavaScript allows
us to invoke functions directly using the parens syntax (hello("world"). When we do that, the
invocation desugars:

1 function hello(thing) {
2 console.log("Hello " + thing);
3 }
4
5 // this:
6 hello("world")
7
8 // desugars to:
9 hello.call(window, "world");

This behavior has changed in ECMAScript 5 only when using strict mode[2]:

1 // this:
2 hello("world")
3
4 // desugars to:
5 hello.call(undefined, "world");

¹²http://es5.github.com/#x15.3.4.4
 JavaScript Fundamentals 6

The short version is: a function invocation like fn(...args) is the same as fn.call(window
[ES5-strict: undefined], ...args).
Note that this is also true about functions declared inline: (function() {})() is the same as
(function() {}).call(window [ES5-strict: undefined).
[2] Actually, I lied a bit. The ECMAScript 5 spec says that undefined is (almost) always passed, but
that the function being called should change its thisValue to the global object when not in strict
mode. This allows strict mode callers to avoid breaking existing non-strict-mode libraries.

Member Functions
The next very common way to invoke a method is as a member of an object (person.hello()). In
this case, the invocation desugars:

1 var person = {
2 name: "Brendan Eich",
3 hello: function(thing) {
4 console.log(this + " says hello " + thing);
5 }
6 }
7
8 // this:
9 person.hello("world")
10
11 // desugars to this:
12 person.hello.call(person, "world");

Note that it doesn’t matter how the hello method becomes attached to the object in this form.
Remember that we previously defined hello as a standalone function. Let’s see what happens if we
attach is to the object dynamically:

1 function hello(thing) {
2 console.log(this + " says hello " + thing);
3 }
4
5 person = { name: "Brendan Eich" }
6 person.hello = hello;
7
8 person.hello("world") // still desugars to person.hello.call(person, "world")
9
10 hello("world") // "[object DOMWindow]world"

Notice that the function doesn’t have a persistent notion of its ‘this’. It is always set at call time
based upon the way it was invoked by its caller.
 JavaScript Fundamentals 7

Using Function.prototype.bind
Because it can sometimes be convenient to have a reference to a function with a persistent this
value, people have historically used a simple closure trick to convert a function into one with an
unchanging this:

1 var person = {
2 name: "Brendan Eich",
3 hello: function(thing) {
4 console.log(this.name + " says hello " + thing);
5 }
6 }
7
8 var boundHello = function(thing) { return person.hello.call(person, thing); }
9
10 boundHello("world");

Even though our boundHello call still desugars to boundHello.call(window, "world"), we turn
right around and use our primitive call method to change the this value back to what we want it
to be.
We can make this trick general-purpose with a few tweaks:

1 var bind = function(func, thisValue) {

2 return function() {
3 return func.apply(thisValue, arguments);
4 }
5 }
6
7 var boundHello = bind(person.hello, person);
8 boundHello("world") // "Brendan Eich says hello world"

In order to understand this, you just need two more pieces of information. First, arguments is an
Array-like object that represents all of the arguments passed into a function. Second, the apply
method works exactly like the call primitive, except that it takes an Array-like object instead of
listing the arguments out one at a time.
Our bind method simply returns a new function. When it is invoked, our new function simply
invokes the original function that was passed in, setting the original value as this. It also passes
through the arguments.
Because this was a somewhat common idiom, ES5 introduced a new method bind on all Function
objects that implements this behavior:
 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
 The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Other
World; or, Glimpses of the Supernatural (Vol. 1
of 2)
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: The Other World; or, Glimpses of the Supernatural (Vol. 1 of 2)

Editor: Frederick George Lee

Release date: July 29, 2013 [eBook #43345]

Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at

http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
generously made available by The Internet Archive.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OTHER

WORLD; OR, GLIMPSES OF THE SUPERNATURAL (VOL. 1 OF 2) ***
 GLIMPSES OF THE
SUPERNATURAL.

The Other World;

OR, GLIMPSES OF THE SUPERNATURAL.
BEING FACTS, RECORDS, AND
TRADITIONS
RELATING TO DREAMS, OMENS, MIRACULOUS OCCURRENCES,
APPARITIONS, WRAITHS, WARNINGS, SECOND-SIGHT,
WITCHCRAFT, NECROMANCY, ETC.

EDITED BY
THE REV. FREDERICK GEORGE LEE, D.C.L.
 Vicar of All Saints’, Lambeth.

IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I.

HENRY S. KING AND CO., LONDON.

1875.

(All rights reserved.)

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

AUGUSTA,
COUNTESS OF STRADBROKE,
OF HENHAM HALL, IN THE COUNTY OF SUFFOLK,
THESE VOLUMES
ARE,
BY HER LADYSHIP’S KIND PERMISSION,
VERY RESPECTFULLY
Dedicated.
“It is often asked—Do you believe in
Prophecies and Miracles? Yes and no,
one may answer; that depends. In
general, yes; doubtless we believe in
them, and are not of the number of
those who ‘pique themselves,’ as Fénelon
said, ‘on rejecting as fables, without
examination, all the wonders that God
works.’ But if you come to the particular,
and say—Do you believe in such a
revelation, such an apparition, such a
cure?—here it is that it behoves us not to
forget the rules of Christian prudence,
nor the warnings of Holy Writ, nor the
teaching of Theologians and Saints, nor,
finally, the decrees of Councils, and the
motives of those decrees. Has the proper
Authority spoken? If it has spoken, let us
bow with all the respect due to grave
and mature ecclesiastical judgments,
even where they are not clothed with
infallible authority; if it has not spoken,
let us not be of those who reject
everything in a partizan spirit, and want
to impose this unbelief upon everybody;
nor of those who admit everything
lightly, and want alike to impose their
belief; let us be careful in discussing a
particular fact, not to reject the very
principle of the Supernatural, but neither
let us shut our eyes to the evidence of
testimony; let us be prudent, even to the
most careful scrutiny—the subject-matter
requires it, the Scriptures recommend it
—but let us not be sceptics; let us be
sincere, but not fanatical: that is the true
mean. And let us not forget that most
often the safest way in these matters is
not to hurry one’s judgment, not to
decide sharply and affirm absolutely—in
a word, not to anticipate, in one sense or
the other, the judgment of those whose
place and mission it is to examine
herein; but to await, in the simplicity of
faith and of Christian wisdom, a decision
which marks out a wise rule, although
not always with absolute certainty.”—
Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans, “On
Contemporary Prophecies.”
 PREFACE.

hese volumes have been compiled from the standing-

point of a hearty and reverent believer in Historical
Christianity. No one can be more fully aware of their
imperfections and incompleteness than the Editor; for
the subjects under consideration occupy such a broad field, that
their treatment at greater length would have largely increased the
bulk of the volumes, and indefinitely postponed their publication.
The facts and records set forth (and throughout, the Editor has dealt
with facts, rather than with theories) have been gathered from time
to time during the past twenty years, as well from ordinary historical
narrations as from the personal information of several friends and
acquaintances interested in the subject-matter of the book. The
materials thus brought together from so many quarters have been
carefully sifted, and those only made use of as would best assist in
the arranged method of the volume, and suffice for its suitable
illustration.
The Editor regrets that, in the publication of so many recent
examples of the Supernatural (about fifty), set forth for the first time
in the following pages, the names of the persons to whom those
examples occurred, and in some cases those likewise who supplied
him with them, are withheld.
The truth is, there is such a sensitive dislike of publicity and of rude
criticism consequent upon publicity, that very many persons shrink
from the ordeal. However, it may be sufficient to state that the
Editor holds himself personally responsible for all those here
recorded, which are not either details of received History, or formally
authenticated by the names and addresses of those who have
supplied him with them.
Many examples of the Supernatural in modern times and in the
present day are here published for the first time, in an authoritative
and complete form.
By the kind courtesy of Lord Lyttelton, the family records of a
remarkable apparition, which is said to have been seen by his noble
ancestor, were placed at the Editor’s disposal, and, by his Lordship’s
permission, are in the following pages now first set forth in detail
and at length.
The Editor is also indebted to the following, either for obliging replies
to his inquiries, or for information which has been embodied in the
succeeding pages:—The late Lady Brougham, the late Rev. W.
Hastings-Kelke, of Drayton Beauchamp; A. L. M. P. de Lisle, Esq., of
Garendon Park; the Very Rev. A. Weld, S.J.; the Right Rev.
Monsignor Patterson, D.D., of S. Edmund’s College, Ware; the Rev. J.
Jefferson, M.A., of North Stainley Vicarage, near Ripon; the Very Rev.
E. J. Purbrick, S.J., of Stonyhurst College; the Rev. John Richardson,
B.A., of Warwick; Henry Cope Caulfeild, Esq., M.A., of Clone House,
S. Leonard’s; the Rev. Theodore J. Morris; Mrs. George Lee; the Rev.
H. N. Oxenham, M.A.; Miss S. F. Caulfeild; Dominick Browne, Esq.
(Dytchley); Captain Lowrie, of York; Mr. C. J. Sneath, of Birmingham;
and many others.
If there be anything set forth in this volume, in ignorance or
misconception, contradictory to the general teaching of the Universal
Church, the Editor puts on record here his regret for having penned
it, and his desire altogether to withdraw such error.
F. G. L.
All Saints’ Vicarage,
York Road, Lambeth.
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
Page

Chapter I.

ntroductory.—Materialism of the present age 1

Chapter II.
The Miraculous in Church History 21

Chapter III.
Spiritual Powers and Properties of the Church.—Sacraments.—
Sacramentals.—Exorcism 51

Chapter IV.
Witchcraft and Necromancy 149

Chapter V.
Dreams, Omens, Warnings, Presentiments, and Second Sight 207
MATERIALISM OF THE PRESENT
AGE.

“In some sense of the Supernatural, in

some faith in the Unseen, in some
feeling that man is not of this World, in
some grasp on the Eternal God, and on
an eternal supernatural and
supersensuous life, lies the basis of all
pity and mercy, all help, and comfort,
and patience, and sympathy among
men. Set these aside, commit us only to
the Natural, to what our eyes see and
our hands handle, and, while we may
organize Society scientifically, and live
according to ‘the laws of Nature,’ and be
very philosophical and very liberal, we
are standing on the ground on which
every savage tribe stands, or indeed on
which every pack of wolves gallops.”
 GLIMPSES OF THE SUPERNATURAL.

Chapter I.
INTRODUCTORY.—MATERIALISM OF THE PRESENT AGE.

o any sincere and hearty believer in Historical

Christianity the advance of Materialism and the
consequent denial of the Supernatural must be the
cause both of alarm and sadness. The few lead, the
many follow; and it is frequently the case that conclusions
contrarient to the idea of the Supernatural are arrived at, after a
course of reasoning, which conclusions appear to many wholly
unjustified, either by the premisses adopted, or from the argument
that has ensued.
It has been stated, in a serial of some ability,[1] that the final issue of
the present conflict between so that things are necessarily different
to what they would have been if he had not thus acted, and no
disturbance nor dislocation of the system around him ensues as a
consequence of such action, surely He Who contrived the system in
question can subsequently interpose both in the natural and spiritual
order of the world. For to deny this possibility is obviously to place
God on a lower level than man; in other words, to make the Creator
of all things weaker and less free than His own creatures.
Now, to go a step further, all human efforts to find out God have
been the result of the combination of ideas gleaned from human
experience. These ideas have often enough been grotesque, fanciful,
and distorted—a judgment which will be admitted to be accurate by
all Christian people; whether the gross conceptions of Pagan
mythology or the nebulous speculations of modern “thinkers” are
brought under consideration. That man, the created, cannot
understand God the Creator—that the thing made cannot compass
the Maker—is not only perfectly certain, but necessary. The being of
God cannot be grasped by a finite intellect; nor can such an intellect
conceive the mode of an existence absolutely and utterly removed
from created conditions. Such knowledge is too wonderful and
excellent: we cannot attain unto it.[2]
But though it may be, and is, utterly impossible to conceive Almighty
God, it is anything but impossible to conceive the fact and reality of
His being. For, as is well known, the general thought and conscience
of mankind have believed in a God, semper et ubique, everywhere
and at all times. Thus a thing may exist, and its existence may be
perfectly patent to the understanding; and furthermore its existence
may be worthy of implicit belief; while, at the same time, the thing
itself may be found to transcend and overpass the limited powers of
man’s intellect. Take, for example, the ideas conveyed by the terms
“eternal”[3] and “infinite.” Who can comprehend them? Who can
explain them? Ordinary popular conceptions make them mere
indefinite extensions of duration and space; yet these conceptions
need not and do not appear absurd, but, on the contrary, enable
ideas, at once definite, distinct, and recognizable, to be conveyed
from man to man.
Thus, by a simple process of thought, we may see for ourselves the
place and propriety of a Revelation, and appreciate the truth of the
Supernatural. Here, in the province of a Revelation, not man’s
conception of God, but God Himself is set forth. Not so unlike
ourselves is He that we find Him, with will, actions, and purposes,
unintelligible; but, using analogies gathered and systematized by
experience, we learn, at the same time, that our Creator is beyond
the range both of thought and language—never to be fully known,
until, with divinely-illuminated faculties in a higher state, we see Him
face to face.
And when we have attained to this point in our course of thought,
the first leading fact of God’s revelation meets us. Here it is: “There
is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or
passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker and
Preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this
Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power, and
eternity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”[4]
Now in this revelation, given in its fullness by the Eternal Word, and
bequeathed to the Christian Church, to be preserved and handed
down for future generations, all is Supernatural. That body of
doctrine which Christians believe, divinely guarded by the Church,
was announced beforehand, centuries ere it was actually delivered,
by a wisdom above nature—the divine light of prophecy. When it
was set forth by the Eternal Word, its truth was attested in the face
of a hostile people by a power above nature, whose word Creation
obeyed, as in regularity, so in marked and palpable change. This
body of doctrine or gospel put forth a supernatural power in the
strange rapidity and manifest success with which it subdued hearts
to itself. Ancient Rome owned the Crucified as a Monarch conquering
and to conquer. His Revelation, of the truth of which there shall be
witnesses unto the end, is above nature, in that it alone provides
adequate remedies for the manifold infirmities of the human race.
The life it produces here is supernatural, as are also the means by
which that life is created, and the efficient gifts by which it is being
constantly renewed. Supernatural, too, is the work of the Holy
Ghost, wrought out by human agents and human instrumentality;
changing, sanctifying, illuminating; shadowing forth by its action the
reunion of earth with heaven, of man with God, only to be
completed and made perfect in the life to come.
Now the purport of this volume is to show by examples of
supernatural intervention—examples many of which have been
gathered from quite recent periods—that Almighty God, from time to
time, in various ways and by different human instruments, still
condescendingly reveals to man glimpses of the world unseen, and
shows the existence of that life beyond the grave, in which the
sceptic and materialist of the present restless age would have us
disbelieve, and which they themselves scornfully reject.
From the sure and solid standing-point of Historical Christianity,
believing Holy Scripture to be the Word of God, and the Christian
Church to be the divinely-formed corporation for instructing, guiding,
and illuminating mankind, remarkable examples of the Supernatural,
miracles, spectral appearances of departed spirits, providential
warnings by dreams and otherwise, the intervention and ministry of
good angels, the assaults of bad, the certain power and efficacy of
the gifts of Holy Church, the sanctity of consecrated places, and the
persevering malignity of the devil and his legions, are gathered
together, and set forth in the pages to follow. For it may reasonably
be believed that, as Almighty God has graciously vouchsafed to
intervene in the affairs of mankind in ages long past, so there has
never been a period in which such merciful intervention has not from
time to time taken place. Granted that in the days of Moses and
Aaron, and of Elijah and Elisha, man owned miraculous powers, and
wrought wonders by the gift of God; granted that in dreams and
visions the will of the Most High was sometimes made known to
favoured individuals of the Jewish Dispensation; remembering the
miracles of our Lord’s apostles and disciples, and bearing in mind the
divine and supernatural powers which were first entrusted to, and
have been ever since exercised by, the Catholic Church, it is at once
unreasonable and unphilosophical to deny the existence in the world
of the supernatural and miraculous. As will be abundantly set forth,
their presence and energy are in perfect accord and harmony with
the universal experience of mankind. Sceptics may contemn and
object, materialists may scoff; but numerous facts as well as a very
general sentiment are against their conclusions and convictions.
Floating straws show the direction and force of a current. As an
example of the lengths to which an adoption of the materialistic
principle will lead some persons, who regard themselves as
“philosophers,” and as a specimen of the dangers which threaten us,
it may be well to refer briefly to the proposal which has recently
been formally and publicly made, viz., that in certain cases of
hopeless disease or imbecile old age, physicians should be legally
authorized to put an end to such patients by poison.
Thus, when the head of a family becomes old or borders on
childishness, the son, by going through the proposed legal formality,
may stand by and witness the poisoning of his father, and so enter
on the possession of his property. When a mother becomes old, the
daughter may assist in a similar manner at her mother’s death. A
crippled child, a weak-minded relation, an infirm member of the
family, according to the “philosophers,” should have a poisonous
drug efficiently administered; that so the weak, crippled, or imbecile
might be murdered and put out of the way. Thus these philosopher-
fanatics assure us that “the natural law of the preservation of the
fittest,” propounded by them, will come into active and unchecked
operation. Having warned us that the penalty we endure for ignoring
this “law” is a population largely composed of weak, unhealthy, poor
and suffering people, they now earnestly recommend a “scientific
method,” by which the lame, the blind, the weak, and the imbecile
should be cleared off from the stage of life.[5] “Natural selection,”
would, unchecked and never opposed, have preserved alive only the
best and noblest types; and as, they tell us in their infallible wisdom,
this principle or law has developed us so far from the mollusk to the
man, it might by this time, had it been carefully and faithfully
applied, have developed us, if not into angels, at least into
nineteenth-century savages of great muscular power. This is the
odious message to mankind which naturalistic Materialism
announces. And if we confine ourselves to what is sometimes called
“science”—that is, exclusive knowledge of things material—such a
conclusion as that arrived at, and such degrading principles as those
propounded for acceptance and practice, may not be altogether
unreasonable.[6] In this kind of “science” there is little else but
coldness, cruelty, and savagery. Only the strong have a right to live.
The weak were born to have their life trampled out, and, according
to this newly-revived theory, the sooner it is done the better. The
murder of the lame, the halt, and the blind, therefore, becomes
thoroughly scientific, and follows as a matter of course. Its practice
is based upon laws which the materialists have been for some time
proclaiming to be “supreme.” If there be no supernatural basis of
life, if the supernatural have no real existence, if man be of the earth
earthy, if he be only an outgrowth of the dumb forces of matter (the
first article of the creed of these “philosophers”), if he be governed
solely and altogether, absolutely and completely by an inexorable
material law (the highest and the only law, as they would have us
believe), then, of course, their conclusion inevitably follows—that it
is both merciful and wise to put a man out of his misery when he
becomes a burden both to himself and his friends. There is no place
in the lofty and elevating system of Naturalism for a being who
cannot take care of himself.
Again: while Scepticism is rampant, and some are endeavouring to
bring back the Pagan notions of ancient nations, to galvanize into
new life the corrupt imbecilities of the past, men of science are
making assertions and assumptions of the boldest, if not of the
wildest nature. One such recently maintained the following
proposition:—“Taking our earth, we know that millions of years have
passed since she began to be peopled.” Now, the maintainer of this
assertion notoriously holds some peculiar theories about the means
by which the solar system (and consequently other systems) was
made, or rather grew. These theories, in some of their details, are or
may be founded upon certain more or less well-ascertained facts.
But when he uses the term “know,” we are bold to point out that
such an assertion rests on mere assumption.[7] We need facts,—
facts which could stand the careful investigation of persons skilled in
taking and measuring evidence; and secondly, we require to be
reasonably convinced that no other possible explanation of a
difficulty be forthcoming, except that on which his assumption is
founded and his inevitable conclusion (as he regards it) deduced.
But how often with scientific people the phrase “We know” stands
for “This is our theory,” or rather “This is our present theory;” for
scientific theories change very frequently; and points which have
been most dogmatically laid down at one period have been with
equal dogmatism condemned and repudiated at another, by those
who apparently strain every nerve and exercise every gift bestowed
upon them, to deny and cast out the Supernatural from amongst
mankind.
From the introduction to a volume of great interest (“The Maxims
and Examples of the Saints”), the following extract is taken, both
because of its inherent truth, and also because the Christian instinct
in defence of the Supernatural is so prominently and forcibly
expressed in every line. Mr. de Lisle’s words stand thus:—
“In these days of shallowness and scepticism, men pride themselves
on calling everything into question, as if they proved their claim to
wisdom according to the measure of their unbelief. But those who
dive a little deeper into things will not be so ready to admit the
claims of modern insolent writers. They will find that our ancestors
had heads as sound, judgments as cool and unprejudiced, at least,
as any of these moderns; and the more they examine, the more
reasons will they find for attaching weight to their testimony. In my
intercourse abroad with divers holy priests and religious monks, I
have seen and heard enough to convince me that many things take
place in this world of a supernatural order. Nor do I believe there
ever has been a period in the history of the Church, when our Lord
has not borne testimony to her divine truth, and to the admirable
sanctity of many of her children, by evident and glorious miracles.
This is the faith of the Church; and who shall gainsay the teaching of
that society that carries with it the experience of eighteen centuries,
the immutable promises of God, the attestations of innumerable
martyrs, and the consent of nations? To him who believes the words
of the holy Gospel, ‘The works that I do shall they do also, and
greater than these,’ &c. (speak not now to the unbeliever), the
conclusion will be clear, and humble faith will bow with submission.
Keeping this promise in view, the Christian will not find it difficult to
believe even the most wonderful histories in the lives of the Saints;
at all events, his spirit will not be that which loves to question
everything, still less that which treats the testimony of devout
writers with levity or scorn. To the humble observer of the ways of
Divine Providence, enough occurs every day to prepare him for any
manifestation of the Power of God: not to say that there is not a
state in Christendom in which, even in our own times, many
wonderful miracles have not taken place. Witness the glorious
appearance of a vast cross of fire in the heavens at Migné, near
Poictiers in France, in the year 1826, in the month of December, an
event which was attested on oath before the bishop of the diocese
by several thousand eye-witnesses.[8] Josephus relates the prodigies
that appeared in the heavens before the downfall of Jerusalem: and
who shall say that this sublime apparition in France did not portend
the approaching calamities that have since fallen upon that kingdom
and upon Europe? In the years 1830 and 1831, blood miraculously
flowed from the arms of S. Nicholas, at Tolentino in Italy, and the
circumstance was solemnly attested by the bishop, the clergy, and
the magistrates of that city. History records similar prodigies to have
taken place at Tolentino whenever any calamities were about to
befall Christendom. S. Nicholas has been dead above 500 years. I
myself had the consolation to visit his shrine; and I heard from
several individuals, with tears in their eyes, the affecting recital of
the miracle. Who does not call to mind the wonderful manifestations
of God’s power at Rome and at Ancona during the period of the
French Revolution, in the year 1792? Innumerable images of our
Blessed Redeemer, and of his Virgin Mother, were seen to move their
eyes, and some even to weep. Nor were these events seen only by a
few, they were beheld and attested by thousands.[9] The miracles
that God has performed by means of the holy Prince Hohenlohe are
known to all, and some of them have been wrought even in
England. These are facts so notorious, that no one can call them in
question; nor is it in the power of profane ridicule to throw doubt
over their authenticity. At the same time, it will always be true that
the Catholic Church does not oblige her children to believe any
miracles but those recorded in the sacred Scriptures; she leaves it to
the discretion of each individual to ground his conviction on the
evidence which has come before him; though it would not be an act
of piety, or worthy of praise for anyone to speak lightly of such
miracles as have been honoured by the approbation of the Holy
See.”

As a mark of rapid theological decline, it may here be put on record,

that a recent writer, the author of “Supernatural Religion: an Inquiry
into the Reality of Divine Revelation” (Longman: 1874), sets forth his
“views” (not his “opinion,” least of all his faith, but his “views”) as
follows:—
“The importance which has been attached to theology by the
Christian Church, almost from its foundation, has been subversive of
Christian morality. In surrendering its miraculous element and its
claims to supernatural origin, therefore, the religion of Jesus does
not lose its virtue, or the qualities which have made it a blessing to
humanity. It sacrifices none of that elevated character which has
distinguished and raised it above all human systems: it merely
relinquishes a claim which it has shared with all antecedent religions,
and severs its connection with ignorant superstition. It is too divine
in its morality to require the aid of miraculous attributes. No
supernatural halo can heighten its spiritual beauty, and no mysticism
deepen its holiness. In its perfect simplicity it is sublime, and in its
profound wisdom it is eternal.
“We gain infinitely more than we lose in abandoning belief in the
reality of Divine revelation. Whilst we retain pure and unimpaired the
treasure of Christian morality, we relinquish nothing but the debasing
elements added to it by human superstition. We are no longer bound
to believe a theology which outrages reason and moral sense. We
are freed from base anthropomorphic views of God and His
government of the universe; and from Jewish theology we rise to
higher conceptions of an infinitely wise and beneficent Being, hidden
from our finite minds, it is true, in the impenetrable glory of Divinity,
but whose laws of wondrous comprehensiveness and perfection we
ever perceive in operation around us. We are no longer disturbed by
visions of fitful interference with the order of Nature, but we
recognize that the Being who regulates the universe is without
variableness or shadow of turning. It is singular how little there is in
the supposed revelation of alleged information, however incredible,
regarding that which is beyond the limits of human thought; but that
little is of a character which reason declares to be the ‘wildest
delusion.’ Let no man, whose belief in the reality of Divine Revelation
may be destroyed by such inquiry, complain that he has lost a
precious possession, and that nothing is left but a blank. The
revelation not being a reality, that which he has lost was but an
illusion, and that which is left is the truth.”
In another volume recently written by Mr. Congreve, the Positivist,
the author maintains in the plainest possible language, what is the
immediate and practical object of the small sect to which he has
allied himself:—“The professed servants of Humanity must lead in
the struggle to eliminate God; and that this is the essential element
in the whole existing perplexity is forcing itself upon all.” Again,
man’s duty is said to be “openly and avowedly to take service in one
or the other of the opposing camps; to bring face to face the two
beliefs; the belief in the Past, the belief in God, and the belief in the
Future, the belief in Humanity; and to choose deliberately between
them.” Furthermore, he avers: “We contemplate the Trinity of our
religion, Humanity, the World, and Space.” A Christian critic has
made the following terse comments on Mr. Congreve’s book:—
“The chief feeling which possesses us in reading these Essays is one
of sorrow for the writer. It is really sad that a man of education
should lend himself to such a delusion. The ‘Religion’ itself is
ridiculous; indeed it has not so much as a theory. Not even on paper
can its doctrines be stated, for the simple reason that it has no
doctrines whatever. But it is always melancholy to watch a naturally
good intellect under the sway of a fantastic idea, or to see an
educated gentleman writing 500 pages on the ‘Worship’ of what
does not exist. The sensation of the reader, as he turns page after
page, is expressed in such an inquiry as this: Since the writer himself
believes in nothing whatever, how can he invite my conversion?”
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