However, although a central figure in the development of degeneration theory, Gobineau was not antisemitic. He may be characterised as philosemitic,[180] having written very positively about Jewish people, including a long eulogy to them in his Essai sur l'inégalité des races, describing them as "a free, strong, and intelligent people" who succeeded despite the natural disadvantages of the Land of Israel.[181] In his later years, however, he inclined, according to Paul Lawrence Rose, toward "a vague personal antisemitism."[182]