The New York herald., 1874-09-13

tion, whether God could not have created from
l crave the attention OF your readers in order 70
show the liberty, breadth ana serenity OF discus
sion which true religion fosters IN her highest
teaching.
There Is sense. then, in which Christian phil
osophers can maintain that the world OF matter as
eternity" Hence too there is sense in which When
created being, spiritual or material. could have
@ been h eternal. nal DO not start gentle reader put
tellgence OF men; complete truth Is its health and
nle.
You must distinguish thing that is eternal
nom thing that is sef-existent. In no possible
supposltlon does the Church admit that any being
save the sole Creator and LORD can be seli-ex xis-
ent Inc difficulty lies precisely IN this hypoihesl
oi possible creation from eternity, In reconciling
the contradiction which appears to exist between
our concepts or notion OF eternity, on the one
hand, and creation from eternity on the other,
Thomas Aoulnas examines the question thor
ougnlY. Inat the world was created ne regards as
q truth demonstrable scientifically by the sole
Iight OF reason; but the beginning OF tue world IN
demonstrable by unaided reason. Aristotle, he
says does not prove that the world has existed
from eternity. Nor, on the other hand are the
arguments used to demonstrate that God Is cre-
atlng, must nave created ''in time and with time"
at all conclusive.
The great reason put forward by schoolmen
tnat Ian efficient cause must precede In time that
. winch It causeth." is not applicable. ST. Thomas
and great flrst cause. He could have created an
eternal world.
Nor would this possible eternity OF the world
make IL TO resemble GOd in his essence. 1t would
De changeable and successive, while God RENAL Ms
reader that in speaking OF the world and of mat
Ter there ls vital difference between saying that
the world might have been eternal and saying
tDat 1t Is uncreated and sell-eXistent. Men OF
thorough education when they advocate the cause
OF rehglon should be careful to do so with that
ca IN and discriminating and tolerant temper
whlch her greatest doctors in the past have
brought to the most fundamental discussions.
Let US place ourselves, then, reader, at the same
Thomas
BACK IN spirit 30 the conceivable point OF dura ton
when God had as yet called nothing into existence,
and surveying the sole sef-eXistent One, all suti-
fections and the society within HIS own bosom or
GOD have been efficient cause OF all things eter-
naliy. as He is eternally the principle OF His Son
We are obliged to make distinction. God is
not lree In generating His Word or Son, hut he Is
oy the eternal coexlstence Of the Three divine per-
sons, could He have been perfect First Cause by
eternally producing the worldY We do know.
rne possibility" OF the eternal creation discussed
by the great medaval scholars is, in ITSELF u mys-
terry In which our nml,ed intelligence is lost.
At any rate II ~ well that we should know that
this great problem is not submitted Tor the first
time to the Intelligence OF Christendom by our
modern scientists. IL Is one quite familiar to our
1aJhefs It's solution In one way or the other did
not alarm their conscience or disturb their Catholic
iatn. we can AFFORD TO take 1t up III our turn
without losing our equanlmity.
Leaving to another letter the subject of evolu-
ton and materlalism, must presume on your
pdlIeHCe ny quoting llttle anecuote OF an age an
terror even to that OF Thomas Aquinas. ST. Bonl-
face or Winifred, an Englishman, became the
apostle OF Germany IN the hrst nall OF the eighth
century. He was a holy man, though not emf
nently learned. st. Virgillus, an lrishman,
eminent alike for science and for virtue, had also
one doctrine taught by tie latter aroused
The vehement hostility of Boniface. Vlrgius
taught that the earth was spherical and that there
existed people at the antipodes. This seemed q
heresy, and Boniface denounced 1t to the Pope
wherever tie Irishman obtained his learning it
did not startle Rome. 1t was only advancing
mere philosophical opinion. Perhaps it was one
not unknown in the capital of Chrlstendom. Ger
tainly II was not looked on with dsIavor. Rome
allowed tlme the great test OF all that is true
and all that Is false, to take it's course VirgIius
was only the predecessor OF Columbus. Reader,
let us, too, leave to time to complete what Is now
imperfect, to harmonze theories which are now
jarrlng and to reconcile what seems to us-crea-
lures Of day-hopelessly contradictory.
PRUDENTlUS.