xxviii EVOLUTION AND DOGMA. 



convinced that the germs of the Evolution theory 

 are to be found in Genesis, and that its fundamental 

 principles were recognized by Aristotle, St. Augus- 

 tine and St. Thomas of Aquin. The final result of 

 the controversy belongs to the future. If the the- 

 ory which has excited such animosity, and provoked 

 such unbridled disputes, be founded on the facts of 

 nature, it will ultimately prevail, as truth itself will 

 prevail in the end ; if, however, it repose only on 

 assumption and unsupported hypotheses, if it have 

 no better foundation than a shifting reef, it is 

 doomed, sooner or later, to the fate which awaits 

 everything that is unwarranted by nature or is at 

 variance with truth. 



Strange as it may appear, there are still some 

 well-meaning people who foolishly imagine, that 

 science, when too profoundly studied, is a source of 

 danger to faith. Such a notion is so silly as scarcely 

 to deserve mention. Pope's well-known verse : " A 

 little learning is a dangerous thing," has its appli- 

 cation here, as in so many other instances. The 

 familiar quotation from Bacon : "A little philosophy 

 inclineth a man's mind to Atheism, but depth in phi- 

 losophy bringeth men's minds about to religion," ex- 

 presses a truth which holds good for science as well 

 as for philosophy. Illustrations of the truth of the 

 second part of this statement are found in the lives 

 of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Linnaeus, Newton, 

 Cuvier, Cauchy, Agassiz, Barrande, Leverrier and 

 numberless others of the world's most illustrious 

 discoverers and most profound thinkers. The great 

 Linnaeus, than whom no one ever studied nature 



