78 SSA-YS SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL. 



similar act in the case of every individual soul. 

 He therefore rejects the suggestion of St. Augus- 

 tine, that if the first soul was created by a primary 

 act, all others may have originated from it, sicut 

 candela de candeld)- 



In mediaeval days the question, of course, arose 

 as to the interpretation of Aristotle's " De Anima." 

 Not that there was any suspicion of traducianism 

 in Aristotle. The controversy between the School- 

 men and the Arabians was not whether Aristotle 

 was a traducianist (and if Aristotle had been a 

 traducianist, he must have - been a materialist, 

 because of his belief in the pre-existence, if not the 

 eternity, of matter), but whether he was a theist 

 or a pantheist ; whether the vovg, which was eternal 

 and imperishable and came in OvpaOev, was a 

 creation or an emanation. Avicenna and Averroes 

 held the latter ; St. Thomas and Duns Scotus held 

 the former view. In spite of the authority of St. 

 Thomas and Duns Scotus, the higher criticism of 

 our day has decided in favour of the Arabians, and 

 the fact, which Scotus admits, that Aristotle had no 

 idea of an original creation, of matter by God, tells 

 strongly for the pantheistic view. 



Now, traducianism is a modus creandi which we 

 can understand, which can be expressed in the 

 familiar language of generation ; and creatianism 

 is a modus creandi which refuses to be rationalized. 



1 See St. Aug., Ep., 157 ; Duns Scotus, vol. iii. pp. 79, 80. 



