REFLECTIONS AND CONCLUSION. 383 



ideas which the immortal Stagirite left as a legacy to 

 the world more than two thousand years ago. 



No ; it is a mistake to suppose that the theory of 

 Evolution, whether cosmic or organic, is something 

 new and the product solely of modern research. It 

 is something old, as old as speculative thought, and 

 stripped of all explanations and subsidiary adjuncts, 

 it is now essentially what it was in the days of Aris- 

 totle, St. Augustine, and the Angel of the Schools. 

 Modern research has developed and illustrated the 

 theory, has given it a more definite shape and 

 rendered it more probable, if indeed it has not 

 demonstrated its truth, but the central idea remains 

 practically the same as it was when " the master of 

 those that know // maestro di color che sanno" as 

 Dante calls Aristotle indited his works on " Physics" 

 and the " History of Animals," and when the great 

 Bishop of Hippo penned his wondrous treatises on 

 " Genesis " and " The Trinity." Indeed, we can say of 

 Evolution what Lord Bacon said of natural science 

 in the beginning of the seventeenth century : " If," 

 says he, " the natural history extant, though ap- 

 parently of great bulk and variety, were to be care- 

 fully weeded of its fables, antiquities, quotations, 

 frivolous disputes, philosophy, ornaments, it would 

 shrink to a slender bulk." Similarly might we affirm, 

 and with equal truth, if Evolution were to be sepa- 

 rated from all the theories and fantastical specula- 

 tions which in the minds of many are an essential 

 part of it, very little, at least as to its principles, 

 would remain, which was unknown to Aristotle, 

 Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. 



