EVOLUTION IN NATURAL SCIENCE 19 



No expert is yet able to say how many such 

 genealogical series we must assume ; perhaps we 

 shall learn more about it two thousand years hence. 

 Nor do we know anything about the hypothetical 

 primitive forms, which are the starting-points of 

 the genealogical series. We are still quite in the 

 dark too as to the laws governing their evolution. 

 All these are biological problems which must be 

 investigated in the centuries to come. 



But I must now draw to a close. If we assume 

 that God is the creator of all things, and that the 

 world created by Him has evolved indepen- 

 dently and automatically, we have actually a 

 greater idea of God than if we regard Him as 

 constantly interfering with the working of the 

 laws of nature. Let us imagine two billiard- 

 players, each having a hundred balls to direct. 

 The one needs a hundred strokes in order to accom- 

 plish his end, the other with one stroke sets all 

 the balls in motion, as he will. The latter is un- 

 doubtedly the more skilful player. St. Thomas 

 Aquinas stated long ago that the force of any 

 cause was the greater, the further its action extended. 

 God does not interfere directly in the natural order 

 where He can work through natural causes. This 

 is by no means a new principle, but a very old one, 

 and it shows us that the theory of evolution, as a 

 scientific hypothesis and theory, as far as it can 

 be really proved, is perfectly compatible with the 

 Christian theory of the origin of things. According 



