332 THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



singular prejudice were particular to send gifts for New 

 Year's Day ; and I well recollect my father's taking off the 

 dish-cover and revealing a magnificent goose at dinner, 

 while he paused to remark to the guests (none of whom, 

 by the way, shared this particular conviction), " I need not 

 assure you, dear friends, that this bird has not been 

 offered to the idol." 



This was a case in which, we may all admit, the de- 

 licate scruples of Philip Gosse's conscience were strained in 

 a somewhat trivial direction. A graver question may be 

 raised, though I will not be so impertinent as to attempt 

 an answer, by my father's rigid attitude toward those who 

 were not at one with him on essential points of religion. 

 " I could never divide myself from any man upon the 

 difference of an opinion," said Sir Thomas Browne, and 

 modern feeling has been inclined to applaud him. But 

 my father was not modern, and it would not merely be 

 absurd, it would be unjust, if I were to pretend that he was 

 liberal, or would have thought it godly to be liberal. 

 Towards those who differed from him on essential points 

 of religion, his attitude was as severe as his masculine 

 nature knew how to make it. He was not sympathetic ; 

 he had no intuition of what might be passing through the 

 mind of one who held views utterly at variance with what 

 seemed to himself to be inevitable. He could be indulgent 

 to ignorance, but when there w r as no longer this excuse, 

 when the revealed will of God on a certain point had been 

 lucidly stated and explained to the erring mind, if then 

 it were still rejected, no matter on what grounds, there was 

 no further appeal. To that kind question of Fuller's, " Is 

 there no way to bring home a wandering sheep but by 

 worrying him to death ? " my father would have answered 

 by a mournful shake of the head. The fold was open, the 

 shepherd was calling, the dog was hurrying and barking, 



