186 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
It is now an elementary theorem in metaphysical science, known to 
every tyro, that it is impossible to refute by logic the philosophical 
denial of the actual existence of matter, notwithstanding the furious 
opposition it received from the Scotchmen who modestly called them¬ 
selves the common-sense philosophers. The subtle and polished lance 
of Berkeley pierced through the seven-fold bull-hides of Reid and his 
allies, although they were as unconscious of their defeat as they would 
have been incapable of understanding a joke ; while the huge paving- 
stones, thrown after the manner of the geologists or homeric Heroes by the 
school of Reid, passed without injuring it, through the etherial shade of 
the immortal Berkeley, which, being devoid of matter, was incapable of 
hurt. 
In like manner, we believe, that any man who possesses the requisite 
abstract turn of mind, may adopt and successfully defend, against all 
comers, the position laid down for the first time systematically in “ Om¬ 
phalos,’ ’ viz.:—. 
It is impossible to prove the actual previous existence of the fossils 
found in the earth. 
Mr. Gosse, in his letter, has attempted to place his theory on a firmer 
foundation, and in order to do so has called in the aid of a speculation 
which we have no doubt he believes to be one capable of proof from 
Holy Scripture, but which we think to be unscriptural and improbable 
in the highest degree. ~We feel called upon to point out very briefly the 
errors into which he has fallen. His position is, that suffering, death, 
are impossible, in a perfect government, except as the result of sin, or 
moral evil. 
The inference from this position, of course, is, that nothing could 
have died on the earth before Adam sinned, as he is the federal head of 
the terrestrial creation; and, therefore, that geologists have erred in 
supposing that fossil shells, &c., actually lived and died. We wonder 
that the author of “ Rrochronism” should have urged this argument, as 
nothing is easier than to suppose that the Rterodactyle and Ichthyosaur 
died because Adam was to sin. To the mind of the Divine Architect 
there can be no past, present, or future; and He who willed the benefits 
of Christ’s death to extend to those who lived and died before that event 
may easily be supposed to have introduced death, metachronically , into 
the world, because he foresaw the fall of man. Such, we believe, would 
be a ready answer to Mr. Gosse, on his own principles; but we entirely 
deny his hypothesis as to the origin of physical evil. Let us call his 
attention to the famous four-horned dilemma of Epicurus, to disprove the 
existence, or rather, superintending care, of the gods. 
Hypoth. —Granted that evil is in the world, and ought not to be 
there. 
1. The gods can, and will, remove it ( possunt et volunt). 
2. The gods can, .and will not. 
3. The gods will, and cannot. 
4. The gods cannot, and will not. 
