Re 
v MR. DARWIN’S CRITICS 133 
to be exposed tothe air. The existence of the 
iron depends on the presence within it of a sub- 
stantial form, which is the cause of its properties, 
e.g. brightness, hardness, weight. But, by degrees, 
the iron becomes converted into a mass of rust, 
which is dull, and soft, and light, and, in all other 
respects, is quite different from the iron. As, in 
the scholastic view, this difference is due to the 
rust being informed by a new substantial form, 
the grave problem arises, how did this new sub- 
stantial form come into being? Has it been 
created ? or has it arisen by the power of natural 
causation? If the former hypothesis is correct, 
then the axiom, “ ex nihilo nihil jit,” is false, even 
in relation to the ordinary course of nature, seeing 
that such mutations of matter as imply the 
continual origin of new substantial forms are 
occurring every moment. But the harmonisation 
of Aristotle with theology was as dear to the 
Schoolmen, as the smoothing down the differences 
between Moses and science is to our Broad Church- 
men, and they were proportionably unwilling to 
contradict one of Aristotle’s fundamental proposi- 
tions. Nor was their objection to flying in the face 
of the Stagirite likely to be lessened by the fact 
that such flight landed them in flat Pantheism. 
So Father Suarez fights stoutly for the second 
hypothesis ; and I quote the principal part of his 
argumentation as an exquisite specimen of that 
speech which is a “darkening of counsel.” 
