Evolution and its Consequences. 77 



anticipation, as it were, should have been enunciated by one of 

 the greatest teachers the Church has ever known, a doctor, 

 the authority of whose writings is not surpassed by that of 

 any of the Fathers — I mean St. Augustin. As I said in my 

 book, ' it must be borne in mind that no one had disputed 

 the generally received belief as to the small age of the world, or 

 of the kinds of animals and plants inhabiting it.' Neverthe- 

 less, as I have shown, the teaching of St. Augustin was 

 distinct with respect to the potential creation of animals and 

 plants. That great source of Western theology held that the 

 whole creation spoken of in Genesis took place in one instant ;. 

 that all created things were created at once, ' potentialiter- 

 atque causaliter,' so that it accords with his teachings if we 

 believe in the gradual development of species, the slow 

 evolution, 'per temporum moras,' into actual existence of 

 what God created potentially in the beginning. 



Now the greatest representatives of Catholic theology are 

 unquestionably St. Augustin and St. Thomas Aquinas, and 

 this being, as almost every one knows, the case, it is incon- 

 ceivable how a teacher like Professor Huxley could write as 

 he has done regarding the consequences of a divergence of 

 Suarez from their expressed opinions. 



If, as Suarez suggests, St. Thomas followed St. Augustin 

 rather through deference than from identity of opinion, it 

 would only bring out more strongly the paramount authority 

 of the latter. But in fact Suarez was here mistaken, for we 

 have St. Thomas's own words as to the matter, where, 

 speaking of St. Augustin's view, he tells us, 'et hsec opinio 

 plus mihi placet' (2 Sent. dis. 12, qusest. 1, a. 2). 



Here it may be well to explain (as Professor Huxley 

 seems quite to have misapprehended me), that when I spoke 

 of the ' wide reception ' of Suarez, and of his being ' widely 

 venerated ' and of ' unquestioned orthodoxy,' I never thought 

 of placing him on a level with St. Thomas and St. Augustin^ 



