On the Genesis of SpeciesMivart, St. George Jackson
Religion
On the Genesis of Species
Mivart, St. George Jackson
Evolution (Biology)
As to Suarez, it will be enough to refer to Disp. xv., 2, n. 9, p. 508, t.
i. Edition _Vives_, Paris; also Nos. 13--15, and many other references{266}
to the same effect could easily be given, but these may suffice.
It is then evident that ancient and most venerable theological authorities
distinctly assert _derivative_ creation, and thus harmonize with all that
modern science can possibly require.
It may indeed truly be said with Roger Bacon, "The saints never condemned
many an opinion which the moderns think ought to be condemned."[278]
The various extracts given show clearly how far "evolution" is from any
necessary opposition to the most orthodox theology. The same may be said of
spontaneous generation. The most recent form of it, lately advocated by Dr.
H. Charlton Bastian,[279] teaches that matter exists in two different
forms, the crystalline (or statical) and the colloidal (or dynamical)
conditions. It also teaches that colloidal matter, when exposed to certain
conditions, presents the phenomena of life, and that it can be formed from
crystalline matter, and thus that the _prima materia_ of which these are
diverse forms contains potentially all the multitudinous kinds of animal
and vegetable existence. This theory moreover harmonizes well with the
views here advocated, for just as crystalline matter builds itself, under
suitable conditions, along _certain definite lines_, so analogously
colloidal matter has _its definite lines and directions_ of development. It
is not collected in haphazard, accidental aggregations, but evolves
according to its proper laws and special properties.
The perfect orthodoxy of these views is unquestionable. Nothing is plainer
from the venerable writers quoted, as well as from a mass of other {267}
authorities, than that "the supernatural" is not to be looked for or
expected in the sphere of mere nature. For this statement there is a
general _consensus_ of theological authority.
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