THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



but also the angels were created at that time. Although it is 

 not explicitly stated on which day the angels were created, 

 we are justified in understanding that they came into being 

 when God said: "Let there be light." And when God sepa- 

 rated light from darkness, he divided the pure angels from 

 the impure ones who now live in darkness (ibid., XI, 9). What 

 kind of days these were it is difficult, and perhaps impos- 

 sible, for us to conceive, and how much more to say (ibid., 

 XI, 6). The human race began with one man whom God 

 placed in Paradise. He was created upright but was corrupted 

 by his own will and begot corrupted and condemned children 

 (ibid., XIII, 12 and 14). They are deceived who, like Apuleius, 

 hold that individually a man is mortal but that the race Is 

 immortal. They are deceived, too, by those highly mendacious 

 documents which profess to give the history of many thou- 

 sand years when, reckoning by the sacred writings, not six 

 thousand years have yet passed (ibid., XII, 10). 



How lightly the Stoic philosophy was regarded by 

 Augustine in comparison with what he regarded as 

 the miraculous revelation of God in the Holy Scrip- 

 tures can be understood by the readiness with which 

 he discarded one of the fundamental doctrines of that 

 school: "The belief, that, after its destruction, the 

 world is renewed and that all events repeat them- 

 selves in successive cycles of time, is altogether false; 

 Christ has died only once and will not again enter 

 into the bonds of death, and we shall in the future 

 be eternally in the presence of God" {ibid., xii, 13 

 seq.). 



In passing from the Middle Ages to the Renais- 

 sance, we should keep in mind what Pater has so sym- 

 pathetically expressed as the spirit of the age: "The 



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