TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Introduction. xiii

PART I.

EVOLUTION, PAST AND PRESENT.

CHAPTER I.

NATURE AND SCOPE OF EVOLUTION. Early Speculations Regarding Nature and Man — Comprehensiveness of Evolution — Evolution Defined — Literature of Evolution — Freedom from Bias in the Discussion of Evolution 13-22

CHAPTER II.

EARLY EVOLUTIONARY VIEWS.

First Studies of Nature — Evolution Among the Greeks — Aristotle's Observations — Mediaeval Writers 23-30

CHAPTER III.

FOSSILS AND GIANTS.

Early Notions Regarding Fossils — Italian Geologists on Fossils — Legends About Giants — True Significance of Fossils — Controversy in the French Academy 31-40

CHAPTER IV.

SPONTANEOUS GENERATION AND SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

Early Views Regarding Abiogenesis — Fathers and Schoolmen on Abiogenesis — Redi's Experiments — Later Researches — General Advance in Science — Chemistry and Astronomy — Testimony of Biology 41-54

CHAPTER V.

FROM LORD BACON TO CHARLES DARWIN.

First Materials for the Controversy — Bacon and Kant — Linnaeus and Buffon — Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck — Species and Varieties 55-64

CHAPTER VI.

CONTROVERSY AND PROGRESS.

Darwin's "Origin of Species" — Herbert Spencer and Compeers — Science and Philosophy — Anticipations of Discoveries — Species and Creation — Evolutionists and Anti-Evolutionists — No Via Media Possible — The Miltonic Hypothesis — Views of Agassiz — Evolution 65-83

CHAPTER VII.

EVIDENCES OF EVOLUTION.

Systems of Classification — Cuvier and His Successors — Points of View — Taxonomic Divisions — Plato's "Grand Ideas" — Cuvier on Species — Definition of Species — Difficulties Regarding Species — Agassiz' Views — Species in the Making — De Candolle and Baird — Evidences of Organic Evolution — A Philological Illustration — Tree -like System of Classification — The Argument from Structure and Morphology — Rudimentary Organs — Argument from Embryology — Amphioxus and Loligo — Meaning of Recapitulation — Geographical Distribution of Organisms — Facts of Geological Snccession — The Demonstrative Evidence of Evolution — Generalized Types — Probability of Evolution — Special Creation and Evolution 84-139

CHAPTER VIII.

OBJECTIONS AGAINST EVOLUTION.

Declarations of Anti- Evolutionists — Historical and Archaeological Objections — Egyptian Mummies — Testimony of the Monuments — Evidence from Plants — Views of Agassi z, Barrande and Others — Misapprehension of the Nature of Evolution, and Answer to Objections — Existence and Cause of Variations — Paucity of Transitional Forms — Variations and the Formation of Fossiliferous Deposits — Romanes on Difficulties Attending Preservation of Fossils — Small Percentage of Fossil Forms — Extraordinary Intercalary Forms — Imperfection of the Geological Record — Time, Change and Equilibrium — Paleontology Compared With Egyptology and Assyriology — Sterility of Species When Crossed — Morphological and Physiological Species — True Significance of the Term "Species" — Factors of Evolution — Evolutionary Theories and Their Difficulties — The Ideal Theory 140-202

PART II.

EVOLUTION AND DOGMA.

CHAPTER I.

MISCONCEPTIONS OF THEORY, ERRORS IN DOCTRINE AND MISTAKES IN TERMINOLOGY.

Evolution of the Evolution Theory — Evolution and Darwinism — Evolution, Atheism and Nihilism — Evolution and Faith — Evolution and Science — Ignorance of Terms — Materialism and Dualism — Pantheism — Dogma of Creation — The Vatican Council on Creation — Meaning of the Word "Nature" — Nature and God 205-229

CHAPTER II.

MONISM AND EVOLUTION.

Haeckel and Monism — Haeckel as a Scientist — Haeckel's Nature-Philosophy — Five Propositions of Haeckel — God and the Soul — Organic and Inorganic Matter — The Religion of the Future — Haeckel's Limitations — Verbal Jugglery — False Analogy — Type of a Class. 230-253

CHAPTER III.

AGNOSTICISM AND EVOLUTION.

Nature and Scope of Agnosticism — Late Developments of Agnosticism — Mansel, Huxley and Romanes — Docta Ignorantia — Agnosticism as a Via Media — Origin of the Universe — Spencer's Unknowable — Max Muller on Agnosticism — Sources of Agnosticism — Infinite Time — Infinite Space — Mysteries of Nature — Christian Agnosticism — Gods of the Positivist and the Agnostic 254-27

CHAPTER IV.

THEISM AND EVOLUTION.

Evolution and Faith — Teachings of St. Augustine — Views of the Angelic Doctor — Seminales Rationes — Creation According to Scripture — The Divine Administration — Efficient Causality of Creatures — Occasionalism — Anthropomorphism — Divine Interference — Science and Creation — Darwin's Objection — Limitations of Specialists — Evolution and Catholic Teaching — The Scholastic Doctrine of Species — Milton and Ray 279-319

CHAPTER V.

THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF LIFE.

Spontaneous Generation — The Nature of Life — The Germ of Life — Abiogenesis — Artificial Production of Life — Protoplasm 320-339

CHAPTER VI.

THE SIMIAN ORIGIN OF MAN.

The Missing Link — The Human Soul — Creation of Man's Body — Mivart's Theory — Angelic Doctor on Creation of Adam — Views of Cardinal Gonzales — Opinions of Other Writers — Interpretation Not Revelation 340-368

CHAPTER VII.

TELEOLOGY, OLD AND NEW.

The Doctrine of Final Causes — A Newer Teleology — Evolution and Teleology — Design and Purpose in Nature 369-377

CHAPTER VIII.

RETROSPECT, REFLECTIONS AND CONCLUSION.

Evolution Not a New Theory — Teachings of Greek Philosophers — Teleological Ideas of Anaxagoras and Aristotle — Influence of Aristotle — Darwinism Not Evolution — Evolution in the Future — Evolution Not Antagonistic to Religion — Objections Against New Theories — Galileo and the Copernican Theory — Conservatism in Science — Conflict of Opinions Beneficial — Evolution and Creationism — Errors in the Infancy of Science — Science Not Omnipotent — Bankruptcy of Science — Conquests of Science — Evidences of Design and Purpose — Rudimentary Organs — Evolution, Scripture and Theology — Evolution and Special Creation — Genesiac Days, Flood, Fossils and Antiquity of Man — Eminent Catholics on Evolution — Faith Has Nothing to Apprehend from Evolution — Misapprehensions Regarding Evolution — Evolution, an Ennobling Conception 378-438