20 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. [Ciiai\ 



this notion, thev admitted without difhcultv tlie most 

 surprising oriLjin of living creatures, provided it took 

 place hy lnv\ They lu-ld that wlien Cfod said, ' Let the 

 waters ])roduce,' ' Let the eartli jjroduce,' He conferred 

 forces on the elements of earth and water, which enabled 

 them naturally to })roduce the various species of organic 

 beings. This power, they thought, remains attached to 

 the elements throughout all time."^ The same writer 

 quotes St. Augustine 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. ])asil,^ speaks of the continued operation of natural 

 laws in the production of all organisms."* 



So much for writers of early and median'al times. As 

 to the present day, the Author can confidently afhrm that 

 there are many as well versed in theology as INFr. ])arwin 

 is in his own de])artment of natural knowledge, who would 

 not be disturbed by the thorough demonstration of his 

 theory, Xay, they would not even be in the least pain- 

 fullv affected at witnessing the generation of animnls of 

 cr)mplex organization by the skilful artificial arrangement 

 of natural forces, and the production, in the future, of 

 a fish, by means analogous to those by which we now 

 produce urea. 



Antl this because they know that the possibility of such 



1 Thf. Rfimbla; March IbOU, vol. xii. p. 372. 



- " In luinia institutione natunp noii (nia-ritur niiraciihnn, .st d (juiJ 

 nntui'i rcniiii lial>r'nt, ut Auj^aistimis ilicit, lib. ii. .sup. (Jen. ad lit. c 1." 

 (%i. Thomas, Siwn. l"'. Ixvii. 4, ail 3.) 



••« "Hexacm." Hom. ix. ]>. 81. 



* Since tlie first edition of tlii.s work appeared, the notice given of it in 

 the Dnhlln Rrvietr for A])ril 1871, demonstrates how great a mistake 

 those make who think that the strictest orthodoxy is necessarilr unfrieiullv 

 to advanced ])hysical .science. 



