m 



cus continued, and Darwin ended, that put 

 the microcosm into line with the macro- 

 cosm , and for the golden age of Eden substi- 

 tuted the tellus dura of Lucretius. Think of 

 the Cimmerian darkness out of which our 

 generation has, at any rate, blazed a path ! 

 Picture the mental state of a community 

 which could produce "Omphalos: An At- 

 tempt to untie the Geological Knot"! 1 

 I heard warm clerical discussions on its 

 main thesis, that the fossils were put into 

 the earth's strata to test men's faith in the 

 Mosaic account of the creation, and our 

 Professor of Natural Theology lectured se- 

 riously upon it ! The intellectual unrest of 

 those days wrapped many in that ' 'dyvine 

 cloude of unknowynge," by which happy 

 phrase Brother Herp designates mediaeval 

 mysticism; and not a bad thing for a young 

 man to live through, as sufficient infection 

 usually remains to enable him to under- 



x By the distinguished naturalist Philip Henry Gosse. 



