v MR. DARWIN'S CRITICS 127 



manifestations of miraculous power and perpetual 

 "catastrophes." Creation is not a miraculous 

 interference with the laws of Nature, but the very 

 institution of those laws. Law and regularity, 

 not arbitrary intervention, was the patristic ideal 

 of creation. With this notion they admitted, 

 without difficulty, the most surprising origin of 

 living creatures, provided it took place by law. 

 They held that when God said, " Let the waters 

 produce," " Let the earth produce," He conferred 

 forces on the elements of earth and water which 

 enabled them naturally to produce the various 

 species of organic beings. This power, they 

 thought, remains attached to the elements 

 throughout all time.' The same writer quotes 

 St. Augustin and St. Thomas Aquinas, to the 

 effect that, ' in the institution of Nature, we do not 

 look for miracles, but for the laws of Nature.' 

 And, again, St. Basil speaks of the continued 

 operation of natural laws in the production of all 

 organisms. 



" So much for the writers of early and mediaeval 

 times. As to the present day, the author can 

 confidently affirm that there are many as well 

 versed in theology as Mr. Darwin is in his own 

 department of natural knowledge, who would not 

 be disturbed by the thorough demonstration of his 

 theory. Nay, they would not even be in the least 

 painfully affected at witnessing the generation of 

 animals of complex organisation by the skilful 



