78 E V OL U Tl ON A ND D O GMA . 



speaker. And if, in the verses just quoted, the poet 

 Is in accord with the literal interpreters of the Gene- 

 siac account of creation, in the following lines he re- 

 flects the ideas of creation entertained by St. Augus- 

 tine and St. Thomas Aquinas. Having spoken of 

 "one first matter," and its subsequent progressive 

 development, the poet continues : 



" So from the root 



Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves 

 More airy, last the bright consummate flower 

 Spirit odorous breathes: flowers and their fruit, 

 Man's nourishment, by gradual scale sublimed, 

 To vital spirits aspire, to animal, 

 To intellectual; give both life and sense, 

 Fancy and understanding; whence the soul 

 Reason receives, and reason is her being, 

 Discursive or intuitive; discourse 

 Is oftest yours, the latter most is ours, 

 Differing but in degree, of kind the same." 



Book V. 



Again, were these new species created by single 

 or multiple pairs ; and, if by multiple pairs, was 

 there one, or were there many centers of distribu- 

 tion for the individual species ? 



Views of Agassiz. 



According to Linnaeus, the great Swedish nat- 

 uralist, who voiced not only the opinion of his time, 

 but of nearly all creationists since his time, species 

 were created by single pairs, and the present num- 

 ber is equal to that which was created in the begin- 



