INTRODUCTION. / 



to how far the Greeks actually anticipated later 

 discoveries, the true conclusion is, that they antici- 

 pated many of our modern theories by suggestion ; 

 thus they carried the Evolution idea well into its 

 suggestive stage, which was so much ground gained 

 for those who took it up in Europe. Greek specu- 

 lations greatly hastened the final result, although, 

 judged by modern scientific standards, they arose 

 mainly as a series of happy conjectures. We know 

 that Greek philosophy tinctured early Christian 

 theology; it is not so generally realized that the 

 Aristotelian notion of the development of life led 

 to the true interpretation of the Mosaic account 

 of the Creation. 



There was, in fact, a long Greek period in the 

 history of the Evolution idea, extending among the 

 Fathers of the Church, and later, among some of 

 the Schoolmen, in their commentaries upon Crea- 

 tion which accord very closely with the modern 

 theistic conceptions of Evolution. If the ortho- 

 doxy of Augustine had remained the teaching of 

 the Church, the final establishment of Evolution 

 would have come far earlier than it did, certainly 

 during the eighteenth instead of the nineteenth 

 century, and the bitter controversy over this truth 

 of Nature would never have arisen. As late as 

 the seventeenth century, the Jesuit Suarez and 

 others contended that the Book of Genesis con- 

 tained a literal account of the mode of Creation, 

 and thereby Special Creation acquired a firm 



