138 MR. DARWIN'S CRITICS v 



tui est. Et infra : Sex enim diebus fecit Dominus ccelum et 

 terram et mare et omnia quce in eis sunt, et idem repetitur in 

 cap. 31. In quibus locis sermonis proprietas colligi potest turn 

 ex sequiparatione, nam cum dicitur : sex diebus operabis, pro- 

 priissime intelligitur : turn quia non est verisimile, potuisse 

 popuhim intelligere verba ilia in alio sensu, et e contrario in- 

 credibile est, Deum in suis prseceptis tradendis illis verbis ad 

 populum fuisse loquutum, quibus deciperetur, falsum sensum 

 concipiendo, si Deus non per sex veros dies opera sua fecisset." 



These passages leave no doubt that this great 

 doctor of the Catholic Church, of unchallenged 

 authority and unspotted orthodoxy, not only 

 declares it to be Catholic doctrine that the work 

 of creation took place in the space of six natural 

 days ; but that he warmly repudiates, as inconsist- 

 ent with our knowledge of the Divine attributes, 

 the supposition that the language which Catholic 

 faith requires the believer to hold that God 

 inspired, was used in any other sense than that 

 which He knew it would convey to the minds of 

 those to whom it was addressed. 



And I think that in this repudiation Father 

 Suarez will have the sympathy of every man of 

 common uprightness, to whom it is certainly 

 " incredible " that the Almighty should have acted 

 in a manner which He would esteem dishonest 

 and base in a man. 



But the belief that the universe was created in 

 six natural days is hopelessly inconsistent with 

 the doctrine of evolution, in so far as it applies to 

 the stars and planetary bodies ; and it can be 



