THE EVOLUTION IDEA 111 



tain that from this the heaven and the earth 

 would be, therefore the material itself is called 

 by that name." Again, as in the foregoing pas- 

 sage, in a later passage he speaks of Creation as 

 of things being brought into due order, "not by 

 intervals of time, but by series of causes, so that 

 those things which in the mind of God were made 

 simultaneously might be brought to their com- 

 pletion by the sixfold representation of that one 

 day." 



Of these passages Cotterill remarks: 



. . . Both the language itself . . . and yet more 

 his [Augustine's] profound sense of the impossibil- 

 ity of representing in the forms of finite thought the 

 operations of the infinite and eternal Mind, com- 

 pelled this great theologian to look beyond the mere 

 letter of the inspired history of Creation, and . . . 

 indicate principles of interpretation which supply by 

 anticipation . . . very valuable guidance when we 

 compare other conclusions of modern science with 

 this teaching of Holy Scripture. 



Cotterill continues that Augustine again illus- 

 trates the work of creation by the growth of a 

 tree from its seed, in which are originally all its 

 various branches and other parts, which do not 

 suddenly spring up such and so large as they are 

 when complete, but in that order with which we 

 are familiar in Nature. All these things are in 



