x PREFACE. 



opinions of Father Suarez has placed him. So much 

 more, in fact, has Mr. Mivart's ingenuity impressed 

 me than any other feature of his reply, that I shall 

 take the liberty of re-stating the main issue between 

 us ; and, for the present, leaving that issue alone to 

 the judgment of the public. 



In his book on the " Genesis of Species " Mr. Mivart, 

 after discussing the opinions of sundry Catholic writers 

 of authority, among whom he especially includes St. 

 Augustin, St. Thomas Aquinas, and the Jesuit Suarez, 

 proceeds to say : " It is then evident that ancient 

 and most venerable theological -authorities distinctly 

 assert derivative creation, and thus their teachings 



' O 



harmonize with all that modern science can possibly 

 require," l By the " derivative creation " of organic 

 forms, Mr. Mivart understands, " that God created 

 them by conferring on the material world the power 

 to evolve them under suitable conditions." 



On the contrary, I proved by evidence, which Mr. 

 Mivart does not venture to impugn, that Suarez, 

 in his "Tractatus de Opere sex Dierum," expressly 

 rejects St. Augustin's and St. Thomas' views ; that he 

 vehemently advocates the literal interpretation of the 

 account of the creation given in the Book of Genesis ; 

 and that he treats with utter scorn the notion that 

 the Almighty could have used the language of that 

 Book, unless He meant it to be taken literally. 



Mr. Mivart, therefore, either has read Suarez and 

 has totally misrepresented him a hypothesis which, I 

 hope I need hardly say, I do not for a moment en? 



