St Ignatius College - Ignatian Yearbook (San Francisco, CA)

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THE PHYSICS OF AQUIN 27 twenty-two began to- publish his first works. His extra- ordinary ability was apparent even in his youth, and each year added to his genius and popularity. Scorning the latter, he time and again, refused lofty ecclesiastical dig- nities. So great was his modesty, and love of poverty and study that the Archbishopric of Naples was pressed upon him in vain. All his works are written in Latin, and herein lies the pity, for they contain hidden treasure, the existence of which men have never suspected. May they soon be translated! His most important work is the Summa Theo- logica, which, while professing to treat of Theology only, is really a systematic and complete summary of the knowl- edge of that time. Aquin regarded every branch of knowl- edge as a part of the knowledge of God, Whom man cannot hope to comprehend completely. This principle was his guiding star. It is a principle that would save many of our moderns a deal of vain and materialistic theorizing. It is from the Summa that we judge of the knowledge St. Thomas and his forerunners had of the science of Physics-not Physics as understood to-day, but Natural Philosophy. The confusion of tongues was nothing to the uncon- nected physical notions that Aquin reviewed and formed into an orderly system. With his wonderful intellect he argued into the very fundamentals of Nature's phenomena -and here his genius is manifested. See his definitions of Motion, Matter, Continuity and Interaction of bodies, Forces, Constitution of matter, etc. The wonderful advance of Physics in the approximate past may be to the honor of the modern scientists but had Aquin the experimental knowledge of to-day what conclusions could he not have drawn from problems that vex the scientist of to-day? The physical system of St. Thomas is peculiarly free from the reckless, unproven theories that are so character- istic of modern physicists and scientists in general. The

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611112 iihgaira nf Aquin ' CARCELY a week passes, nowadays, that 2 cm JM the world is not startled, and agreeably so, sly by the announcement of some new, or mod- ern, scientific theory. In fact, the more startling the principles and the bolder the seized upon by the public and many pseudo-scientists. The seizure, however, is short-lived, because the sensation- craving are Hckle and are always ready to transfer their whimsical interest. The fireside philosophers and self- seeking men have their double in the scientists UD who color the Sunday Supplements with their over-night theories. This is not intended as an indictment against the earnest and able scientists of to-day, but it is to decry the populariz- ing of science by the press and the lucre-loving college professors, who, posing as scientists, deluge a susceptive public with their weird conglomeration of distorted and unscientiiic phantasms. This is the class of men who be- little and degrade the noble principles of true science. The over-night theorists have two pronounced tenden- cies, one of attempting to argue away from a Supreme Cause, chiefly by their espousal of the oft-exploded doctrine of Evolution, and the other, of ridiculing the scientists of the Middle Ages. The latter tendency they have trans- mitted to their followers, so that time and again, in maga- zine, newspaper, and lecture, they make the most of every opportunity to have their Hing at the Middle Age scientist. Chief among the learned men of the period in question is Thomas of Aquin, theologian, philosopher, and scientist. Born about 1226 in the castle of Rocca Secca, near Aquino, he became a Dominican at the age of seventeen, and at presumptions, the quicker is the theory

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28 IGNATIAN exactitude of his definitions is without a par. He, with St. Augustine, wanted to know, not to conjecture. Thus it is that his physical treatises border closely upon and often lapse into a philosophical strain. But there can be no ob- jection to a trained philosopher and theologian like St. Thomas embellishing physical science with his knowledge of the higher and nobler sciences. With such as Aquin this is a most welcome method-but there are few like St. Thomas. The true scientist has nothing to fear from religion. Both proceed from the same source and one cannot contra- dict the other. Again, there never has been any revelation as to the properties of bodies, the nature oif motion and all such. In other words, there is no revealed chemistry, no revealed astronomy, and no revealed physics. These are natural sciences depending specifically upon themselves and unable to borrow from theology either the laws of their being or the methods that could accelerate their progress. All this was known to St. Thomas, and when human investigation could do no more he murmured a Laus Deo. Learned man that he was he knew better than to build a. system upon unfounded hypotheses. Truly, the spirit of God moved over his work. And his critics afore- mentioned, not only cast a shadow upon themselves and their profession, but they show exceedingly bad taste. C. Harold Caulfield.