HARMONIZED WITH EVOLUTION i8i 



its fulness nor fully determine man's primitive con- 

 idition. What the physical evolved the superphys- 

 lical completed, and the supernatural mysteries of 

 grace are obviously involved in man's unique posi- 

 tion of conscious dependence upon God, and in his 

 superhuman destiny. Grace does not stultify human 

 nature, but perfects it, and enables man to realize 

 himself in such wise as to satisfy his God-given in- 

 stincts and aspirations. 



f 2. In the second place, nothing in catholic doctrine 

 interferes with acknowledging that,jf Jhe supernatural 

 factors in human history could be ignored, the con- 

 flict which is found in every man between the lusts of 

 the flesh and the higher demands of the spirit might 

 be explained by a natural survival of propensities 

 inherited from brute-ancestors. In my next lecture 

 I hope to show that we are free to regard the fall as a 

 reversion to the natural, and therefore to the condition 

 which natural evolution engenders when not supple- 

 mented by the mysteries of supernatural grace. But 

 if, as I trust I have sufficiently proved, the natural 

 order is part of a larger order, and if an acceptance of 

 the supernatural, as I have also endeavoured to show, 

 is necessary for a rational view of moral history as a 

 whole, we are not justified in believing that God did 

 nothing to enable primitive man to restrain his animal 

 impulses, and to give uninterrupted obedience to his 

 I moral instincts. To beheve that primitive man was 

 given supernatural grace, and forfeited that advantage 

 by voluntary transgression, is consistent with an 



