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 



