THEISM A ND E VOL UTION. 288 



God, then, according to St. Augustine, created 

 matter directly and immediately. On this primor- 

 dial or elementary matter He impressed certain 

 causal reasons, causales rationes; that is, He gave it 

 certain powers, and imposed on it certain laws, in 

 virtue of which it evolved into all the myriad forms 

 which we now behold. The saint does not tell us 

 by what laws or processes the Creator acted. He 

 makes no attempt to determine what are the factors 

 of organic development. He limits himself to a 

 general statement of the fact of Evolution, of prog- 

 ress from the simple to the complex, from the 

 homogeneous to the heterogeneous, from simple 

 primordial elements to the countless, varied, com- 

 plicated structures of animated nature. 



Has any modern philosopher stated more clearly 

 the salient facts of organic Evolution ? Has anyone 



lib. IV, cap. xxin, the saint beautifully develops the evolu- 

 tionary idea, when he exhibits the analogy between the growth 

 of a tree from the seed and the Evolution of the world from its 

 primordial elements. Speaking of the gradual growth of the 

 tree trunk, branches, leaves, fruit from the seed, he declares : 

 " In semine ergo ilia omniafuerunt primitus, non mole corporeae 

 magnitudinis sed vi potentiaque causali." After asking the ques- 

 tion : " Quid enim ex arbore ilia surgit aut pendet, quod non ex 

 quodam occulto thesauro seminis illius extractum atque de- 

 promptum est? " he continues with rare philosophical acumen : 

 " sicut autem in ipso grano invisibiliter erant omnia simul quae 

 per tempora in arborem surgerent ; ita ipse mundus cogitandus 

 est, cum Deus simul omnia creavit, habuisse simul omnia quae in 

 illo et cum illo facta sunt, quando factus est dies ; non solum 

 ccelum cum sole et luna et sideribus, quorum species manet motu 

 rotabili, et terram et abyssos, qua? velut inconstantes motus pa- 

 tiantur atque inferius adjuncta partem alteram inundo conferunt; 

 sed etiam ilia quae aqua et terra produxit potentialiter atque 

 causaliter, priusquam per temporum moras ita exorirentur, quo 

 modo nobis jam nota sunt in eis operibus, quae Deus usque nunc 

 operatur." 



