St. Alphonsus writes: "a single bad book will be sufficient to cause the destruction of a monastery." Pope Pius XII wrote in 1947 at the beatification of Blessed Maria Goretti: "There rises to Our lips the cry of the Saviour: 'Woe to the world because of scandals ' (Matthew 18:7). Woe to those who consciously and deliberately spread corruption-in novels, newspapers, magazines, theaters, films, in a world of immodesty " We at St. Pius X Press are calling for a crusade of good books. We want to restore 1,000 old Catholic books to the market. We ask for your assistance and prayers. This book is a photographic reprint of the original The original has been inspected and many imperfections in the existing copy have been corrected. At Saint Pius X Press our goal is to remain faithful to the original in both photographic reproductions and in textual reproductions that are reprinted. Photographic reproductions are given a page by page inspection, whereas textual reproductions are proofread to correct any errors in reproduction.

Thomists have traditionally presented philosophy and theology in St. Thomas Aquinas' own native scholastic methodology. This methodology allowed philosophical and theological disciplines to advance objectively and in a scientific manner for centuries - understanding 'science' in the Aristotelian sense. Hugon's multi-volume work uses this methodology, offering formal arguments with clearly identifiable premises and conclusions and formal objections with clearly identifiable distinctions, etc., covering practically all the parts of speculative philosophy. The manual is a true work of synthesis of seven centuries of Thomistic tradition.This translation thus puts into print and at the reach of English speakers an introduction to Thomistic philosophy that follows the scholastic scientific methodology faithfully, thus providing them with a solid means of learning the all-but-forgotten art of scholastic disputation. This Cosmology volume covers the first part of natural philosophy, considering the physical world from the point of view of its efficient, material, formal, and final causes.