270 CRITIQUES AND ADDRESSES. [xi. 



anima rationalis that rational and immortal substan- 

 tial form which is peculiar to man was created out 

 of nothing, and " breathed into " a mass of matter 

 which, till then, was mere dust of the earth, and so 

 man arose. But the species man was represented by a 

 solitary male individual, until the Creator took out one 

 of his ribs and fashioned it into a female. 



This is the view of the " Genesis of Species," held 

 by Suarez to be the only one consistent with Catholic 

 faith : it is because he holds this view to be Catholic 

 that he does not hesitate to declare St. Augustin unsound, 

 and St. Thomas Aquinas guilty of 'weakness, when the 

 one swerved from this view and the other tolerated the 

 deviation. And, until responsible Catholic authority 

 say, for example, the Archbishop of Westminster 

 formally declares that Suarez was wrong, and that 

 Catholic priests are free to teach their flocks that the 

 world was not made in six natural days, and that plants 

 and animals were not created in their perfect and com- 

 plete state, but have been evolved by natural processes 

 through long ages from certain germs in which they were 

 potentially contained, I, for one, shall feel bound to 

 believe that the doctrines of Suarez are the only ones 

 which are sanctioned by Infallible Authority, as repre- 

 sented by the Holy Father and the Catholic Church. 



I need hardly add that they are as absolutely denied 

 and repudiated by Scientific Authority, as represented by 

 Reason and Fact. The question whether the earth and 

 the immediate progenitors of its present living popula- 

 tion were made in six natural days or not, is no longer 

 one upon which two opinions can be held. 



The fact that it did not so come into being stands 

 upon as sound a basis as any fact of history whatever. 

 It is not true that existing plants and animals came into 

 being within three days of the creation of the earth out 



