THE MEDIAEVAL ATTITUDE 



age of the earth ; the attempts of the timid who would 

 now reconcile Biblical narrative with evolution by 

 taking the week of creation as a figurative expression 

 for the long lapse of geological periods can satisfy- 

 neither side. On the other hand, while there is in the 

 extant poems of Empedocles no mention of time, 

 there is also no warrant for the claims of the evolu- 

 tionists who see in his cosmogony the germ of trans- 

 mutation and who have allowed their own bias to 

 lead them out of the path of scientific procedure as 

 surely as those who vainly try to reconcile the Bible 

 and science. 



Before closing this discussion of the attitude of the 

 Middle Ages towards science we must pause for a 

 moment to discuss the opinions of St. Augustine, not 

 because he departed from the general belief which, in 

 fact, he had done much to form, but because of all the 

 Christian Fathers he is looked upon with most favour 

 by historians of evolution. We have already referred 

 to the statements of Haeckel and Conklin regarding 

 him as being without foundation. Unfortunately, two 

 of the most popular histories of evolution — From 

 the Greeks to Darwin by Osborn, and Biology and 

 its Makers by Locy — are so palpably mere unverified 

 compilations that they are certain to give students of 

 biology a quite erroneous view of evolution. Osborn, 

 with facile superficiality, quotes with approval the 

 opinion of Aubrey Moore that: "Augustine distinctly 

 rejected Special Creation in favour of a doctrine 



