Evolution and its Consequences, 75 



Nevertheless, in a remarkable manner, even Father 

 Suarez does refer to the origination of certain kinds of 

 animals, and admits their actual evolution by natural causes. 

 These are partly exceptional forms such as hybrids, and 

 partly such as were believed to originate by cosmical influ- 

 ences direct from the inorganic world, or through the agency 

 of putrefaction. 



In lib. ii.. Be Opere Bex Dierum, c. x., n. 12, speaking of 

 such animals as the mule, leopard, lynx, etc., after stating the 

 opinion that individuals of their kinds must have been 

 created from the beginning, he says, 'nihilominus con- 

 trarium censeo esse probabilius ' ; and he gives his reason, 

 ' quia hujusmodi species animalium sufficienter continebantur 

 potentialiter in illis individuis diversarum specierum ex 

 quorum conmixtione generantur ; et ideo non fuit necessa- 

 rium aliqua eorum individua ab auctore naturae immediate 

 produci.' This in principle is absolutely all that can be 

 required, for it reduces the matter simply to a question of fact. 

 He asserts the principle that those kinds of animals which 

 are potentially contained in nature need not be supposed to 

 be directly and immediately created. In determining what 

 kinds were or were not so contained, he followed the scientific 

 notions of his time as he understood them. He would have 

 written according to the exigencies of science now. 



But this matter is really unmistakable. For, so far was 

 Suarez from teaching that all life requires direct creative 

 action, that he speaks of certain creatures, ' quae per influen- 

 tiam coelorum ex putrida materia terrse aut aqua generari 

 Solent.' {Ibid., n. 10.) 



It is also interesting to see that (in n. 11) he positively 

 asserts the improbability and incredibility that certain kinds 

 of animals now living were actually created at first at all : 

 'Alias dicendum esset in omnibus speciebus quantumvis 

 imperfectis aliqua individua in principio fuisse facta quia non 



