28o THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



"Eversley, May 4, 1858. 



"My dear Mr. Gosse, 



" I have found time to read Omphalos carefully, 

 "and will now write you my whole heart about it. 



" For twenty-five years I have read no book which has 

 " so staggered and puzzled me. Don't fancy that I pooh- 

 "pooh it. Such an idea, having once entered a man's 

 " head, ought to be worked out ; and you have done so 

 " bravely and honestly. 



"Your distinction between diachronism and pro- 

 "chronism, instead of being nonsense, as it is in the eyes 

 " of the Locke-beridden Nominalist public, is to me, as a 

 " Platonist and realist, an indubitable and venerable 

 "truth. For many years have I believed in that in- 

 " tellectualic, of which neither time nor space can be 

 "predicated, wherein God abides eternally, descending 

 "into time and space only by the Logos, the creative 

 "Word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore with me the 

 " great stumbling-block to your book does not exist. 



" Nothing can be fairer than the way in which you 

 "state the evidence for the microchronology. That at 

 " once bound me to listen respectfully to all you had to 

 " say after. And, much as I kicked and winced at first, 

 " nothing, I find, can be sounder than your parallels and 

 "precedents. The one case of the coccus-mother 

 "(though every conceivable instance goes to prove your 

 "argument) would be enough for me, assuming the 

 "act of absolute creation. Assuming that — which I 

 " have always assumed, as fully as you — shall I tell you 

 " the truth } It is best. Your book is the first that ever 

 " made me doubt it, and I fear it will make hundreds do 

 " so. Your book tends to prove this — that if we accept 

 " the fact of absolute creation, God becomes a Deus 

 " quidam deceptor. I do not mean merely in the case 



