He proceeds to describe, on the same supposition, the other events of the day, which he accepts as having in a certain very important sense happened, though, of course, only in the sense which excludes their reality.  No doubt, for a series of hallucinations, anything will do in the way of explanation.  The scene of the evening was really believed to have taken place as described, though it was the mere product of chance noises and breaths of air on minds intently expectant; and we are bidden to remember “that in these decisive hours a current of wind, a creaking window, an accidental rustle, settle the belief of nations for centuries.”  But at any rate it was a decisive hour:—­

Tels furent les incidents de ce jour qui a fixe le sort de l’humanite.  L’opinion que Jesus etait ressuscite s’y fonda d’une maniere irrevocable.  La secte, qu’on avait cru eteindre en tuant le maitre, fut des lors assuree d’un immense avenir.

We are willing to admit that Christian writers have often spoken unreally and unsatisfactorily enough in their comments on this subject.  But what Christian comment, hard, rigid, and narrow in its view of possibilities, ever equalled this in its baselessness and supreme absence of all that makes a view look like the truth?  It puts the most extravagant strain on documents which, truly or falsely, but at any rate in the most consistent and uniform manner, assert something different.  What they assert in every conceivable form, and with distinct detail, are facts; it is not criticism, but mere arbitrary license, to say that all these stand for visions.  The issue of truth or falsehood is intelligible; the middle supposition of confusion and mistake in that which is the basis of everything, and is definitely and in such varied ways repeated, is trifling and incredible.  We may disbelieve, if we please, St. Paul’s enumeration of the appearances after the Resurrection; but to resolve it into a series of visions is to take refuge in the most unlikely of guesses.  And, when we take into view the whole of the case—­not merely the life and teaching out of which everything grew, but the aim and character of the movement which ensued, and the consequences of it, long tested and still continuing, to the history and development of mankind—­we find it hard to measure the estimate of probability which is satisfied with the supposition that the incidents of one day of folly and delusion irrevocably decided the belief of ages, and the life and destiny of millions.  Without the belief in the Resurrection there would have been no Christianity; if anything may be laid down as certain, this may.  We should probably never have even heard of the great Teacher; He would not have been believed in, He would not have been preached to the world; the impulse to conversion would have been wanting; and all that was without parallel