8 EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 



scientific hypothesis than that of descent to explain the origin of 

 species, a number of transformists would give up their present 

 opinions as insufficiently proved. 1 



Compare with this the scientific attitude of the 

 Catholic scientist who, without fear or hesitation, 

 is willing to admit evolution precisely so far as it 

 can be established by fact. His Faith does not 

 impede his researches but preserves him from rash 

 deductions, and may often point the right way 

 where science has no final answer to give. He ap- 

 proaches his investigation unhampered by any 

 prejudice, with no eagerness for anything except 

 to ascertain the truth, the full truth, and nothing 

 but the truth. The fear that this truth can ever, 

 even in the slightest detail, conflict with his faith 

 will never enter the mind of the real Catholic sci- 

 entist, who has been trained to welcome every fact 

 of science without reserve or suspicion provided 

 that it is a fact and not a mere hypothesis which 

 may be changed tomorrow. His unshaken belief 

 in a Creator merely rounds out and completes his 

 knowledge, giving logical consistency to all his 

 thought. It does not obstruct, but perfects his 

 vision. Nothing is more wide of the truth than 

 the assumption that physics and metaphysics, 

 when both pursued in a truly scientific way, can 

 ever be in the slightest conflict with one another. 

 Here, in brief, is the logical argument of Chris- 

 tian metaphysics, as pithily and authoritatively 



'Ibid. 



