LITERARY WORK IN DEVONSHIRE. 281 



"of fossils which pretend to be the bones of dead 

 animals ; but in the one single 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 weight), ' 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 



