So
certain was she of the great results which would then ensue that she
wondered at times at the blindness shown by Providence towards its own
truest interests in not killing off the rectors who stood between
Theobald and his living a little faster.
In those days people believed with a simple downrightness which I do
not observe among educated men and women now. It had never so much
as crossed Theobald's mind to doubt the literal accuracy of any
syllable in the Bible. He had never seen any book in which this was
disputed, nor met with anyone who doubted it. True, there was just a
little scare about geology, but there was nothing in it. If it was
said that God made the world in six days, why He did make it in six
days, neither in more nor less; if it was said that He put Adam to
sleep, took out one of his ribs and made a woman of it, why it was
so as a matter of course. He, Adam, went to sleep as it might be
himself, Theobald Pontifex, in a garden, as it might be the garden
at Crampsford Rectory during the summer months when it was so
pretty, only that it was larger, and had some tame wild animals in it.
Then God came up to him, as it might be Mr.
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