acles_, 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."

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 de