434 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the ancieut world could be entirely smothered neither by eloquence 

 nor logic, and St. Augustine himself began an effort to evolve from 

 these germs a growth in science which should be " sacred " and " safe." 

 With this intent he prepared his great commentary on the work of 

 creation, as given in Genesis, beside touching uj^on the subject in other 

 writings. Once engaged in this work, he gave himself to it more 

 earnestly than any other of the earlier fathers ever did ; but his vast 

 powers of research and thought were not directed to actual observa- 

 tion or reasoning upon observation ; the key-note of his whole method 

 is seen in his famous phrase, " Nothing is to be accepted save on the 

 authority of Scripture, since greater is that authority than all the pow- 

 ers of the human mind," * All his thought was given to studying the 

 letter of the sacred text, and to the application of it by methods purely 

 theological. 



Among the many questions he then raised and discussed may be 

 mentioned such as these : " What caused the creation of the stars on 

 the fourth day?" "Were beasts of j^rey and venomous animals cre- 

 ated before or after the fall of Adam ? If before, how can their cre- 

 ation be reconciled with God's goodness ; if afterward, how can their 

 creation be reconciled to the letter of God's word ? " " Why were 

 only beasts and birds brought before Adam to be named, and not fishes 

 and marine animals ? " " Why did the Creator not say, ' Be fruitful 

 and multiply,' to plants as well as to animals ? " f 



As to the creation of animals, Augustine curiously anticipates the 

 Darwinian theory in his statement that birds take their origin in 

 water. As to land animals, he holds that insects were not created 

 " actually " during the six days, but only " potentially and virtually " 

 so, since they sprang afterward from carrion. 



Such was the contribution of the greatest of the Latin Fathers to 

 the scientific knowledge of the world, after a most thorough study of 

 the biblical text, and a most profound application of theological rea- 

 soning. The results of this contribution were most important. In 

 this, as in so many other fields, Augustine gave direction to the main 

 current of thought in Western Europe, Catholic and Protestant, for 

 nearly thirteen centuries. 



In the ages that succeeded, the vast majority of prominent schol- 

 ars followed him implicitly. Even so strong a man as Pope Gregory 

 the Great yielded to his influence, and such leaders of thought as St. 

 Isidore, in the seventh century, and the venerable Bede, in the eighth, 

 planting themselves upon Augustine's premises, only ventured timidly 

 to extend their conclusions upon lines he had laid down. 



In his great work on " Etymologies," Isidore took up Augustine's 

 attempt to bring the creation of insects into satisfactory relations with 

 the book of Genesis, and, adopting the theory of the ancient philoso- 



* For citations and authorities on this point, see my chapter on " Meteorology." 

 f See Augustine, " De Genesi," ii, 13, iii, 13, 15, ct seq., ix, 12, et seq. 



