110 EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 



ent date, that the Mosaic word for "day" can 

 be taken to signify any period of time, no matter 

 how many millions of years we may wish to pos- 

 tulate. Such is clearly the Scripture use of the 

 word in question. The eons, therefore, of the 

 various nebular hypotheses do not in the least 

 perplex the Scripture scholar. But we may state 

 at once that there is no reason for postulating 

 millions of years for the age of man. This how- 

 ever is a subject which shall be treated in its 

 proper place. 3 



That the idea of evolution, applied to the work 

 of the Six Days, can offer no difficulty to the 

 Catholic student has been made evident in the 

 preceding chapter. We can therefore proceed 

 directly with our explanation of the most ap- 

 proved scientific theories, and compare them 

 carefully with the Scripture record, assuming for 

 the time a strictly chronological order. Yet, this, 

 we repeat, the Scripture scholar is not obliged to 

 do in order to safeguard the accuracy of the sa- 

 cred writings. 



In the beginning, science pictures immense 

 drifts of atoms or ions wandering in the vast of 

 ethereal space, uniting ultimately into luminous 

 systems, hazy, nebulous, cloud-like masses, out of 

 which in course of time evolved the stellar worlds. 

 The original nebula, as the very latest theories 

 hold, may have been loose swarms of cold me- 



8 See Chapter XVII. 



