Vv MR. DARWIN'S CRITICS 129 
“Now, considering how extremely recent are 
these biological speculations, it might hardly be 
expected @ priori that writers of earlier ages 
should have given expression to doctrines 
harmonising in any degree with such very 
modern views; nevertheless, this is certainly 
_ the case, and it would be easy to give numerous 
examples. It will be better, however, to cite one 
or two authorities of weight. Perhaps no writer 
of the earlier Christian ages could be quoted whose 
authority is more generally recognised than that 
of St. Augustin. The same may be said of the 
medieval period for St. Thomas Aquinas: and 
since the movement of Luther, Suarez may 
be taken as an authority, widely venerated, 
and one whose orthodoxy has never been ques- 
tioned. 
“Tt must be borne in mind that for a consider- 
able time even after the last of these writers no 
one had disputed the generally received belief as 
to the small age of the world, or at least of the 
kinds of animals and plants inhabiting it. It 
becomes, therefore, much more striking if views 
formed under such a condition of opinion are 
found to harmonise with modern ideas con- 
cerning ‘Creation’ and organic Life. 
“ Now St. Augustin insists in a very remarkable 
manner on the merely derivative sense in which 
God’s creation of organic forms is to be under- 
stood ; that is, that God created them by conferring 
VOL, II K 
