I. _Dualistic creation._--God restricted his interference to _two_ creative acts. First he created the inorganic world, mere dead substance, to which alone the law of energy applies, working blindly and aimlessly in the mechanism of material things and the building of the mountains; then God attained intelligence and communicated it to the purposive intelligent forces which initiate and control organic evolution.[26] II. _Trialistic creation._--God made the world in _three_ creative acts: (_a_) the creation of the heavens--the extra-terrestrial world, (_b_) the creation of the earth (as the centre of the world) and of its living inhabitants, and (_c_) the creation of man (in the image and likeness of God). This dogma is still widely prevalent among theologians and other "educated" people; it is taught as the truth in many of our schools. III. _Heptameral creation_; a creation in seven days (_teste_ Moses).--Although few educated people really believe in this Mosaic myth now, it is still firmly impressed on our children in the biblical lessons of their earliest years. The numerous attempts that have been made, especially in England, to harmonize it with the modern theory of evolution have entirely failed. It obtained some importance in science when Linné adopted it in the establishment of his system, and based his definition of organic species (which he considered to be unchangeable) on it: "There are as many different species of animals and plants as there were different forms created in the beginning by the Infinite." This dogma was pretty generally held until the time of Darwin (1859), although Lamarck had already proved its untenability in 1809. IV. _Periodic creation._--At the beginning of each period of the earth's history the whole population of animals and plants was created anew, and destroyed by a general catastrophe at its close; there were as many general creative acts as there are distinct geological periods (the catastrophic theory of Cuvier [1818] and Louis Agassiz [1858]). Palæontology, which seemed to support this theory in its more imperfect stage, has since completely refuted it. V. _Individual creation._--Every single man--and every individual animal and plant--does not arise by a natural process of growth, but is created by the favor of God. This view of creation is still often met with in journals, especially in the "births" column. The special talents and features of our children are often gratefully acknowledged to be "gifts of God"; their hereditary defects fit into another theory.