434 LESSONS FKOM NATUEE. [CHAP. XIV. 



increasingly complex reactions between bodies and their en 

 vironment, then it necessarily follows that new and higher 

 substantial forms may be evolved, and consequently new 

 and higher forms of life. 



Such a principle, firmly established against opponents, 

 becomes applicable to the evolution of new species, as soon 

 as ever physical science shows good reason to regard the 

 origin of species not as simultaneous but successive. 



It may be objected that Suarez, in the passage referred to, 

 only adverts to new individuals of known kinds in 



Suarez. IT i&amp;gt; T j? TT 1 



the ordinary course 01 nature, rrotessor Huxley 

 says : &quot; How the substantial forms of animals and plants 

 primarily originated, is a question to which, so far as I am 

 able to discover, he does not so much as allude in his 

 Metaphysical Disputations. &quot; Most certainly, in his day, no 

 one entertained the modern notion as to the origin of species ; 

 and it was hardly to be expected that Suarez should say 

 anything directly in point. That he should establish the 

 needful principle was all we could reasonably demand or 

 expect. 



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 influences direct 

 from the inorganic world, or through the agency of putre 

 faction. 



In lib. ii. de Opere Sex Dierum, c. x. n. 12, speaking of 

 such animals as the mule, leopard, lynx, &c., after stating the 

 opinion that individuals of their kinds must have been created 

 from the beginning, he says, &quot;nihilominus contrarium censeo 

 esse probabilius ;&quot; and he gives his reason, &quot; quia hujusmodi 

 species aninaalium sufficienter continebantur potentialiter in 

 illis individuis diversarum specierum ex quorum conmixtione 

 generantur ; et ideo non fuit necessarium aliqua eorum in- 

 dividua ab auctore natura immediate produci.&quot; This in 

 principle is absolutely all that can be required, for it reduces 



