v MR. DARWIN'S CRITICS 133 



to be exposed to the air. The existence of the 

 iron depends on the presence within it of a sub- 

 stantial form, which is the cause of its properties, 

 e.g. brightness, hardness, weight. But, by degrees, 

 the iron becomes converted into a mass of rust, 

 which is dull, and soft, and light, and, in all other 

 respects, is quite different from the iron. As, in 

 the scholastic view, this difference is due to the 

 rust being informed by a new substantial form, 

 the grave problem arises, how did this new sub- 

 stantial form come into being ? Has it been 

 created ? or has it arisen by the power of natural 

 causation ? If the former hypothesis is correct, 

 then the axiom, " ex nihilo nihil Jit," is false, even 

 in relation to the ordinary course of nature, seeing 

 that such mutations of matter as imply the 

 continual origin of new substantial forms are 

 occurring every moment. But the harmonisation 

 of Aristotle with theology was as dear to the 

 Schoolmen, as the smoothing down the differences 

 between Moses and science is to our Broad Church- 

 men, and they were proportionably unwilling to 

 contradict one of Aristotle's fundamental proposi- 

 tions. Nor was their objection to flying in the face 

 of the Stagirite likely to be lessened by the fact 

 that such flight landed them in flat Pantheism. 



So Father Suarez fights stoutly for the second 

 hypothesis ; and I quote the principal part of his 

 argumentation as an exquisite specimen of that 

 speech which is a " darkening of counsel." 



