CONTINUITY APPLIED 167 



theistic. It is between two conceptions of history, one 

 excluding the sovereign mind, the other asserting its 

 control of all things in a drama wherein all reahties, 

 all spheres, and all the ages are intelligibly connected 

 in one orderly march of events. It is, in brief, between 

 acknowledgment and repudiation of the supernatural. 

 I do not mean, in saying this, to imply that all who 

 reject the catholic doctrine under discussion repudiate 

 the supernatural. I mean that the plausibility of the 

 arguments against that doctrine which are advanced on 

 evolutionary grounds is due to the assumption that a 

 merely natural evolution affords an adequate explana- 

 tion of things which are otherwise explained by those 

 who do justice to the supernatural. 



Ill 



What does the word supernatural mean? It is a U 

 relative term, although it signifies objective factors in 

 history. It does not mean the unnatural, for every 

 thing is natural from its own standpoint, and all is 

 orderly in ultimate meaning and effect. It means a 

 higher natural than can be explained by the particular 

 nature or natures which determine our standpoint in 

 using the word. Its meaning, therefore, depends upon 

 what natures are assumed to be transcended by what 

 we call supernatural. Thus human intelhgence is 

 supernatural to the merely physical, and volitional 

 action is supernatural to undirected force. In its 

 theological use the point of view is that visible order 

 of natures which reaches its highest level in man. It 



