LITERARY WORK IN DEVONSHIRE. 281 



" of fossils which pretend to be the bones of dead 

 animals ; but in the one sini^le case of your newly- 

 created scars on the pandanus trunk, and your newly 

 "created Adam's navel, you make God tell a lie. It is 

 " not my reason, but my conscience which revolts here ; 

 "which makes me say, * Come what will, disbelieve what 

 " ' I may, I cannot believe this of a God of truth, of Him 

 "'who is Light and no darkness at all, of Him who 

 "'formed the intellectual man after His own image, that 

 "'he might understand and glory in His Father's works.' 

 " I ought to feel this, I say, of the single Adam's 

 " navel, but I can hush up my conscience at the single 

 " instance ; at the great sum total, the worthlessness 

 "of all geologic instruction, I cannot. I cannot give up 

 "the painful and slow conclusion of five and twenty 

 "years' study of geology, and believe that God has 

 "written on the rocks one enormous and superfluous lie 

 "for all mankind. 



"To this painful dilemma you have brought me, and 

 " will, I fear, bring hundreds. It will not make me throw 

 " away my Bible. I trust and hope. I know in whom I 

 "have believed, and can trust Him to bring my faith 

 " safe through this puzzle, as He has through others ; but 

 " for the young I do fear. I would not for a thousand 

 " pounds put your book into my children's hands. They 

 "would use the argument of the early Reformers about 

 "transubstantiation (which you mention, but to which 

 " you do not give sufficient w^eight), ' My senses tell 

 " ' me that this is bread, not God's body. You may burn 

 " ' me alive, but I must believe my senses.' Your 

 "demand on implicit faith is just as great as that 

 " required for transubstantiation, and, believe me, many 

 " of your arguments, especially in the opening chapter, 

 "are strangely like those of the old Jesuits, and those 



