xi/1 ME. DAEWIN'S CRITICS. 261 



on the presence within it of a substantial form, which 

 is the cause of its properties, e.g. brightness, hardness, 

 weight. But, by degrees, the iron becomes converted 

 into a mass of rust, which is dull, and soft, and light, 

 and, in all other respects, is quite different from the iron. 

 As, in the scholastic view, this difference is due to 

 the rust being informed by a new substantial form, 

 the grave problem arises, how did this new substan- 

 tial form come into being ? Has it been created ? 

 or has it arisen by the power of natural causation ? 

 If the former hypothesis is correct, then the axiom, 

 " ex nihilo nihil Jit" is false, even in relation to the 

 ordinary course of nature, seeing that such mutations 

 of matter as imply the continual origin of new 

 substantial forms are occurring every moment. But 

 the harmonization of Aristotle with theology was as 

 dear to the Schoolmen, as the smoothing down the dif- 

 ferences between Moses and science is to our Broad 

 Churchmen, arid they were proportionably unwilling to 

 contradict one of Aristotle's fundamental propositions. 

 Nor was their objection to flying in the face of the 

 Stagirite likely to be lessened by the fact that such 

 flight landed them in flat Pantheism. 



So Father Suarez fights stoutly for the second hypo- 

 thesis; and I quote the principal part of his argumen- 

 tation as an exquisite specimen of that speech which is 

 a " darkening of counsel." 



"13. Secundo de omnibus aliis forrais subsfcautialibus [sc. mate- 

 rialibus] dicenchim est non fieri proprie ex nihilo, sed ex potentia 

 praejacentis material educi : ideoque in effectione harum formarum nil 

 fieri contra illtid axloma, Ex nihilo nihil Jit, si recte intelligatur. Hsec 

 assertio sumitur ex Aristotele 1. Physicorum per totura et libro 7. 

 Metaphyss. et ex aliis authoribus, quos statim referam. Et declaratur 

 breviter, nam fieri ex nihilo duo dicit, unum est fieri absolute et 

 simpliciter, aliud est quod talis effectio fit ex nihilo. Primum proprie 

 dicitur de re subsisteute, quia ejus est fieri, cujus est esse : id an tern 



