24. 30 January 1987

My dear Nancy,

Back in rural Essex, with your latest thoughts in store to warm the winter's cold. You'll forgive me if I'm a bit flummoxed by a god who invents the basic principles of physics, waits a billion years, and then injects Jesus. It suggests at least a change of mind, and indeed heart. It's clear to me that the universe is already quite mysterious enough, not to say impossible, even before we confuse it still further by seeking to explain it. Perhaps we can do no better than striving to cultivate our gardens, as Voltaire said. I've always quite enjoyed that.

Love as ever,

   Yours E.