30 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION PART 



see in these speculations more than an approximate 

 approach to modern theories must be kept in mind. 



1. There is a primary substance which abides 

 amidst the general flux of things. 



All modern research tends to show that the various 

 combinations of matter are formed of some prima 

 materia. But its ultimate nature remains unknown. 



2. Out of nothing comes nothing. 



Modern science knoivs nothing of a beginning, and, 

 moreover ; holds it to be unthinkable. In this it stands 

 in direct opposition to the theological dogma that God 

 created the universe out of nothing; a dogma still 

 accepted by the majority of Protestants and binding on 

 Roman Catholics. For the doctrine of the Church of 

 Rome thereon, as expressed in the Canons of the 

 Vatican Council, is as follows : ' If any one confesses 

 not that the world and all things which are contained 

 in it, both spiritual and material, have been, in their 

 whole substance, produced by God out of nothing ; or 

 shall say that God created, not by His free will from 

 all necessity, but by a necessity equal to the necessity 

 whereby He loves Himself, or shall deny that the world 

 was made for the glory of God: let him be anathema! 



3. The primary substance is indestructible. 



The modern doctrine of the Conservation of Energy 

 teaches that both matter and motion can neither be 

 created nor destroyed. 



4. The universe is made up of indivisible particles 

 called atoms, whose manifold combinations, ruled by 

 unalterable affinities, result in the variety of things. 



With modifications based on chemical as well as 

 mechanical changes witJiin the atoms, this theory of 

 Leucippus and Democritus is confirmed. (But recent 



