432 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA. 



to suppose that a thing can give what it does not 

 possess, that the greater is contained in the less, the 

 superior in the inferior, the whole in a part. 



No mere mechanical theory, therefore, however 

 ingenious, is competent to explain the simplest fact 

 of development. Not only is such a theory unable to 

 account for the origin of a speck of protoplasm, or 

 the germination of a seed, but it is equally incom- 

 petent to assign a reason for the formation of the 

 smallest crystal or the simplest chemical compound. 

 Hence, to be philosophically valid, Evolution must 

 postulate a Creator not only for the material which 

 is evolved, but it must also postulate a Creator, Causa 

 causarum, for the power or agency which makes any 

 development possible. God, then, not only created 

 matter in the beginning, but He gave it the power 

 of evolving into all forms it has since assumed or 

 ever shall assume. 



But this is not all. In order to have an intelli- 

 gible theory of Evolution, a theory that can meet 

 the exacting demands of a sound philosophy as well 

 as of a true theology, still another postulate is neces- 

 sary. We must hold not only that there was an actual 

 creation of matter in the beginning, that there was 

 a potential creation which rendered matter capable 

 of Evolution, in accordance with the laws impressed 

 by God on matter, but we must also believe that 

 creative action and influence still persist, that they 

 always have persisted from the dawn of creation, 

 that they, and they alone, have been efficient in all 

 the countless stages of evolutionary progress from 

 atoms to monads, from monads to man. 



