THEISM A ND E VOL UTION. 293 



produce plants in act out of the earth, belongs to 

 the work of propagation ; because it suffices for their 

 production that they have the power of the heav- 

 enly bodies, as it were, for their father, and the ef- 

 ficacy of the earth in place of a mother. Therefore, 

 plants were not actually produced on the third day, 

 but only causally. 1 After the six days, however, 

 they were actually produced according to their 

 proper species, and in their proper nature by the 

 work of administration." " In like manner fishes, 

 birds and animals were produced in those six days 

 causally and not actually Similiter pisces, aves et 

 animalia in illis sex diebus causaliter, et non actu- 

 aliter producta sunt" " 



Such, then, is the teaching of the illustrious 

 bishop of Hippo and of the Angel of the Schools, re- 

 specting creation and the genesis of the material 

 universe. To the striking passages just quoted, I 

 can do nothing better than add Father Harper's 

 beautiful and eloquent commentary as found in his 

 splendid work, " The Metaphysics of the School." 



" In the creation," declares the learned Jesuit, 

 "represented by Moses in the manner best suited to 

 the intellectual calibre of the chosen people, under 

 the figure of six days as St. Thomas, quoting from 

 St. Augustine, remarks the elements alone, among 

 earthly things, were actually produced by the crea- 

 tive act ; but simultaneously, in the primordial mat- 



J It will be noted that a portion of this extract from "De 

 Potentia," is verbally identical with a part of what is found in the 

 preceding quotation from the " Summa." 



2 " Pot." q. iv, a 2, 28 m. 



