56 THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



"Family/ were the prime favourites. As an example 

 " of the absorption of interest with which I entered into 

 " these imaginary scenes, I remember that on one 

 "occasion this autumn (1827), I was sitting in my bed- 

 "room late at night, finishing a novel, and when I had 

 " done, it was some minutes before I could at all recall 

 " where I was, or my circumstances. At another time, 

 " I actually read through two of the three volumes of a 

 " novel at one sitting. 



" It was, if I am not mistaken, in The Collegians* 

 " one of the O'Hara tales, that I met with the following 

 " sentence : — ' If time be rightly defined as " a succession 

 "'"of ideas," then to him whose mind holds but one 

 "'abiding idea, there is no time.' This definition struck 

 " me forcibly at the time ; and all through life I have 

 " recurred to it, ever and anon, when I have read the 

 " ordinary confused definitions of time, in which the 

 "motions of the heavenly bodies are prominently 

 " mentioned. There are indeed the measures of time ; 

 " but the essence of time is something quite distinct 

 " from its admeasurement. The sentence I have just 

 " quoted formed the basis of many a discussion between 

 " St. John and me ; and we speculated much upon 

 "eternity, as if its essence precluded succession. We 

 " talked too of God, as the schoolmen had done long 

 " before us ; assuming that to Him there was no succes- 

 sion, but one abiding now. 



"The year 1827 closed, and I knew by experience 

 "what a Newfoundland winter was. It was by no 

 " means unbearable. The thermometer very rarely 

 " descends below zero more than once or twice in the 

 " season ; snow sets in generally by the end of Sep- 



* By Gerald Griffin. 



