218 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWIN 



the activity of its inherent principles, rather than by 

 a sudden evolution of the whole by the Almighty 

 fiat. — What a magnificent idea of the infinite power 

 of the Great Architect! The Cause of Causes! 

 Parent of Parents! Ens Entium! 



For if we may compare infinities, it would seem to 

 require a greater infinity- of power to cause the causes 

 of effects, than to cause the effects themselves. 



That this theistic view of creation by Evolu- 

 tion won the attention and support of natural 

 philosophers is sho^^^i by the following statement 

 attributed to the Reverend James iMcCloud in 

 the year 1818:' 



Progressive evolution is the universal plan. Every- 

 thing which we meet in the world around us, matter 

 and mind, every individual and all congregated 

 masses, begin their course as germs and unfold in 

 slow progression. . . . The faculties of all intelli- 

 gent creation, all that ^^ou call mind, all that you 

 call heart, are framed for an interminable series of 

 evolutions. ... It is not mainly the mould of this 

 mighty frame of tilings which establishes it, it is the 

 fact that creation is eternall}^ unfolding new re- 

 sources and presenting itself under successive and 

 amazing combinations of which no creature in the 

 universe had imagined it capable. 



^See Creation by Evolution, edited bv Frances Mason, 1928, 

 p. 23. 



