316 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA. 



repeat, a matter not of a priori reasoning, but 

 wholly and solely one of observation and experi- 

 ment. 



In his " Summa," the Angelic Doctor admits 

 without hesitation the possibility of a new species, 

 for he tells us that : " New species, if they make their 

 appearance, preexisted in certain active virtues, as 

 animals are produced from carrion under the influ- 

 ence communicated in the beginning to the stars 

 and the elements." ' 



More than this, he distinctly admits the muta- 

 bility of species. To the objection that species 

 must be immutable because they correspond with 

 archetypes in the Divine intelligence, that they 

 must be immutable because their forms are essen- 

 tially immutable, he replies, that " immutability is 

 proper to God only," and that " forms are subject 

 to the variations of the reality." " 



Again, it is erroneously supposed that St. Thomas 

 always attaches to the terms genus and species, the 

 same meaning as is given them by modern natural- 

 ists. This is a grave misapprehension. It will suf- 

 fice to adduce a single instance in disproof of this 

 notion. For example, the Angelic Doctor places 

 man and animal in the same genus. But if, in the 

 mind of St. Thomas, the word genus were in this 



1 " Species etiam novae, si quae apparent, prseextiterunt in 

 quibusdam activis virtutibus ; sicut et animalia ex putrefactione 

 generata producuntur ex virtutibus stellarum et elementorum, 

 quas a principio acceperunt ; etiamsi novse species talium ani- 

 malium producuntur." " Summa," pars I, quaest. 73, art. i ad 3. 



"" Subjiciuntur tamen variationi in quantum subjectum 

 secundum eas variatur." "Summa," pars I, quasst. 9, art. 2 et 3. 



