It must be borne in mind that for a considerable time after even the last of these writers no one had disputed the generally received view as to the small age of the world or at least of the kinds of animals and plants inhabiting it. It becomes therefore much more striking if views formed under such a condition of opinion are found to harmonize with modern ideas regarding "Creation" and organic life. Now St. Augustin insists in a very remarkable manner on the merely derivative sense in which God's creation of organic forms is to be understood; that is, that God created them by conferring on the material world the power to evolve them under suitable conditions. He says in his book on Genesis:[269] "Terrestria animalia, tanquam ex ultimo elemento mundi ultima; nihilominus _potentialiter_, quorum numeros tempus postea visibiliter explicaret." Again he says:-- "Sicut autem in ipso grano invisibiliter erant omnia simul, quae per tempora in arborem surgerent; ita ipse mundus cogitandus est, cum Deus _simul omnia creavit_, habuisse simul omnia quae in illo et cum illo facta sunt quando factus est dies; non solum coelum cum sole et luna et sideribus ... ; sed etiam illa quae aqua et terra produxit potentialiter atque causaliter, priusquam per temporum moras ita exorirentur, quomodo nobis jam nota sunt in eis operibus, quae Deus usque nunc operatur."[270] "Omnium quippe rerum quae corporaliter visibiliterque nascuntur, {265} occulta quaedam semina in istis corporeis mundi hujus elementis latent."[271] And again: "Ista quippe originaliter ac primordialiter in quadam textura elementorum cuncta jam creata sunt; sed acceptis opportunitatibus prodeunt."[272] St. Thomas Aquinas, as was said in the first chapter, quotes with approval the saying of St. Augustin that in the first institution of nature we do not look for _Miracles_, but for the _laws of Nature_: "In prima institutione naturae non quaeritur miraculum, sed quid natura rerum habeat, ut Augustinus dicit."[273] Again, he quotes with approval St. Augustin's assertion that the kinds were created only derivatively, "_potentialiter tantum_."[274] Also he says, "In prima autem rerum institutione fuit principium activum verbum Dei, quod de materia elementari produxit animalia, vel in actu vel _virtute_, secundum Aug. lib. 5 de Gen. ad lit. c. 5."[275] Speaking of "kinds" (in scholastic phraseology "substantial forms") latent in matter, he says: "Quas quidam posuerunt non incipere per actionem naturae sed prius in materia exstitisse, ponentes latitationem formarum. Et hoc accidit eis ex ignorantia materiae, quia nesciebant distinguere inter potentiam et actum. Quia enim formae praeexistunt eas simpliciter praeexistere."[276] Also Cornelius a Lapide[277] contends that at least certain animals were not absolutely, but only derivatively created, saying of them, "Non fuerunt creata formaliter, sed potentialiter."