298 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA 



I have said that the efficient causality of crea- 

 tures serves to disclose the wisdom and power and 

 love of the Creator. It is true, but here again I 

 shall quote from the eloquent and profound Father 

 Harper, who so beautifully sums up all that may be 

 said on the subject, that I need make no apology for 

 quoting him in full. 



The efficient causality of the creature serves to 

 manifest God's wisdom, " for there is greater elabora- 

 tion of design. To plan out a universe of finite en- 

 tities, differing in essence and in grades of perfection, 

 is doubtless a work of superhuman wisdom ; but to 

 include in the design the further idea, of conferring 

 on these entities a complex variety of forces, quali- 

 ties, active and passive, faculties by virtue of which 

 nature should ever grow out of itself and develop 

 from lower to higher forms of existence, and should 

 multiply along definite lines of being ; to conceive a 

 world whose constituents should ceaselessly energize 

 on one another, yet without confusion and in an ad- 

 mirable order; to allow to the creature its own proper 

 causality, and yet, even spite of the manifold action 

 of free will in a countless multiplicity of immortal in- 

 telligences, to elaborate a perfect unity ; surely this 

 is an incalculably higher manifestation of wisdom. 

 It serves to manifest the power of the Creator ; for 

 every cause is proportioned to the effect. But the 

 completion of a design such as has been described, is 

 a more noble effect than if every production of 

 natural operation were the result of immediate crea- 

 tion. The manufacture of a watch is a noble work 

 of art; but if a watch should be made capable of 



