MISCONCEPTIONS OF THEORY. 221 



With hyperphysical creation we shall have little 

 to do. Our chief concern will be with absolute, or 

 direct creation, and with secondary or derivative 

 creation, both of which are so often misunder- 

 stood and confounded, if not positively denied. It 

 would, indeed, seem that the sole aim and purpose 

 of a certain school of modern scientists, is to discover 

 some means of evading the mystery of creation. For 

 they not only deny creation, but also deny its possi- 

 bility, and all this because they, with "the fool," per- 

 sist in saying in their hearts " There is no God." So 

 great, indeed, is their hatred of the words " Creator" 

 and " creation," that they would, if possible, obliter- 

 ate them from the dictionary, and consign all works 

 containing them to eternal oblivion. ' 



The Vatican Council on Creation. - 



For a clear and succinct statement of Catholic 

 doctrine, in respect of God as Creator of all things, 

 as well for an expression of the Church regarding the 

 errors of Materialism and Pantheism now so rife, we 

 can have nothing better or more pertinent to our pres- 

 ent subject than the constitution and canons of the 

 Vatican Council: De Deo Rerum Omnium Creator e. 



The " Dogmatic Constitution of the Catholic 

 Faith," in reference to " God, the Creator of all 

 things," reads as follows : " The Holy Catholic 

 Apostolic Roman Church believes and confesses, that 



1 " In properly scientific works," says Buchner, who de- 

 clares that '' science must necessarily be atheistic," " the word 

 [God] will seldom be met with ; for, in scientific matters the 

 word ' God' is only another expression for our ignorance." 

 " Man in the Past, Present, and Future," p. 329. 



