reatness and wisdom
of God. There remains the derivative form of creation, compendiously
styled evolution. That this also is a possible method of creation no one
will deny, and it has been discussed as such by many of the greatest
thinkers in the history of the Church. We can consider it, therefore,
from the point of fact or of knowledge as we now possess it, and we can
do so without imagining that, in so doing, we are contemplating a method
which is anything else but the carrying out of a creative plan, existing
perfect and complete and from all eternity in the mind of the Being
Whose conception it was and by whose _fiat_ it came to pass. Moreover,
each form produced is a special creation, since it was specially
designed to be as it is and to appear when it did, just as the
clockmaker intends his clock to strike twelve at noon, though he can
hardly be said to make it strike at that moment. Hence to place special
creation in antagonism to evolution is really to use an ambiguous
phraseology. No doubt it is not easy to find the proper phraseology.
Some have employed the terms "immediate" and "mediate," to which also a
certain amount of ambiguity is attached. Perhaps "direct" and
"derivative" might convey more accurate ideas; but whatever terminology
we adopt, we are still safe in saying that whether God makes things or
makes them make themselves He is creating them and specially creating
them.

This is not the place to enter into any elaborate discussion as to the
truth of the theory of evolution. Few will be found to deny the
statement that it is a theory which _does_ explain Nature as we see it
and as we learn its history in the past, but that does not necessarily
prove that it is true. St. Thomas Aquinas, dealing with the movements of
the planets, makes a very important statement when he tells us, in so
many words, that, though the hypothesis with which he is dealing would
explain the appearances which he was seeking to explain, that does not
prove that it is the true explanation, since the real answer to the
riddle may be one then unknown to him. There are, however, one or two
points it may be useful to consider before we leave the question.

That evolution may occur within a class seems to be quite certain. The
case of the Porto Santo rabbits, one of many cited by Darwin or brought
to knowledge since his time, will make clear what is meant. Porto Santo
is a small island, not far from Madeira, on which a Portuguese