128 MR. DARWIN'S CRITICS v 



artificial arrangement of natural forces, and the 

 production, in the future, of a fish by means 

 analogous to those by which we now produce 

 urea. 



"And this because they know that the possi- 

 bility of such phenomena, though by no means 

 actually foreseen, has yet been fully provided for 

 in the old philosophy centuries before Darwin, or 

 even centuries before Bacon, and that their place in 

 the system can be at once assigned them without 

 even disturbing its order or marring its harmony. 



" Moreover, the old tradition in this respect has 

 never been abandoned, however much it may have 

 been ignored or neglected by some modern writers. 

 In proof of this, it may be observed that perhaps 

 no post-mediaeval theologian has a wider reception 

 amongst Christians throughout the world than 

 Suarez, who has a separate section 1 in opposition 

 to those who maintain the distinct creation of the 

 various kinds or substantial forms of organic 

 life " (pp. 1921). 



Still more distinctly does Mr. Mivart express 

 himself in the same sense, in his last chapter, 

 entitled " Theology and Evolution " (pp. 302-5). 



" It appears, then, that Christian thinkers are 

 perfectly free to accept the general evolution 

 theory. But are there any theological authorities 

 to justify this view of the matter ? 



1 Suarez, Mctaphysica. Edition Vives. Paris, 1868, vol. i. 

 Disput. xv. 2. 



