So invariable is this sequence of thought and act, that there are philosophers who, transferring the past example offered by Asiatic history to the case of Europe, would not hesitate to sustain the proposition--given a bishop of Rome and some centuries, and you will have an infallible pope: given an infallible pope and a little more time, and you will have Llamaism--Llamaism to which Asia has long, ago attained.
As to the origin of corporeal and spiritual things, the Dogmatic Constitution adds a solemn emphasis to its declarations, by anathematizing all those who bold the doctrine of emanation, or who believe that visible Nature is only a manifestation of the Divine Essence.

In this its authors had a task of no ordinary difficulty before them.

They must encounter those formidable ideas, whether old or new, which in our times are so strongly forcing themselves on thoughtful men.
The doctrine of the conservation and correlation of Force yields as its logical issue the time-worn Oriental emanation theory; the doctrines of Evolution and Development strike at that of successive creative acts.
The former rests on the fundamental principle that the quantity of force in the universe is invariable.

Though that quantity can neither be increased nor diminished, the forms under which Force expresses itself may be transmuted into each other.

As yet this doctrine has not received complete scientific demonstration, but so numerous and so cogent are the arguments adduced in its behalf, that it stands in an imposing, almost in an authoritative attitude.