212 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA. 



'believer in general, but not in particular, Provi- 

 dence.' " So far, indeed, was Darwin from having 

 any " atheistical intent," that when interrogated re- 

 garding certain of his religious views he replied: "In 

 my most extreme fluctuations I have never been an 

 atheist in the sense of denying the existence of 

 God." ' And the late Dr. McCosh declared, that he 

 had " never been able to see that religion, and in 

 particular that Scripture, in which our religion is 

 embodied, is concerned with the absolute immuta- 

 bility of species." * 



The Rev. Doctor Pohle thus expresses himself 

 in an able and interesting article on Darwinism and 

 Theism : . " I feel bound to confess that I never 

 could prevail upon myself to believe, that Darwinism 

 contains nothing short of a hot-bed of infidelity and 

 iniquity, brought into a system, and is, therefore, 

 irreconcilable on principle with a sincere and pious 

 belief in a First Cause and Designer of the world." 3 



The illustrious Dominican confe'rencier, Father 

 Monsabre", records it as his opinion that the theory 

 of Evolution, " far from compromising the orthodox 

 belief in the creative action of God, reduces this 

 action to a small number of transcendent acts, more 

 .in conformity with the unity of the Divine plan and 

 the infinite wisdom of the Almighty, who knows 

 how to employ secondary causes to attain his 

 ends." 4 This is in keeping with the view of the dis- 



lu Life and Letters of Charles Darwin," vol. I, p. 274. 

 2 "The Religious Aspect of Evolution," p. 27. 

 8 American Ecclesiastical Revieiv, Sept. 1892; p. 163. 

 4 " L'fivolution des Especes Organiques, par le Pere M. D. 

 Leroy, O. P.," p. 4. 



