INTRODUCTION. XV 



Whatever may be the outcome of the controver- 

 sy, whatever may be the results of future research 

 and discovery, there is absolutely no room for ap- 

 prehension respecting the claims and authority of 

 Scripture and Catholic Dogma. Science will never 

 be able to contradict aught that God has revealed ; 

 for it is not possible that the Divine works and 

 the Divine words should ever be in any relation to 

 each other but one of the most perfect harmony. 

 Doubts and difficulties may obtain for a time; the 

 forces of error may for a while appear triumphant ; the 

 testimonies of the Lord may be tried to the utter- 

 most ; but in the long run it will always be found, 

 as has so often been the case in the past, that 

 the Bible and faith, like truth, will come forth un- 

 harmed and intact from any ordeal, however severe, 

 to which they may be subjected. For error is im- 

 potent against truth ; the pride of man's intellect is of 

 no avail against the wisdom of the Almighty. False 

 teaching and false views of nature are but the vain 

 projections of the imaginations of men ; false theo- 

 ries and false hypotheses are often no more than 

 what St. Augustine aptly designates "the great ab- 

 surdities of great teachers magna magnorum deli- 

 ramenta doctorum. How true, indeed, the words 

 of the old distich: 



Nostra damus quum falsa damus, nam fallere 

 nostrum est, 



Et quum falsa damus, nil nisi nostra damus. 



The fictions of opinions are ephemeral, but the 

 testimonies of the Lord are everlasting. Opinionum 

 comment a delet dies, says Cicero. This utterance of 



