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ficer. S. The implanting in them a desire for offspring, implanting in mothers a love of bringing up their young, and in those who are nourished the greatest desire for life and the greatest fear of death:-surely these also seem like the contrivances of some one designing that there should be living creatures ?" (Memor. book i. ch. 4.)

In this passage we have, as we believe, the first distinct statement of the relation of ends to means in the natural world, and of the arguments to be based thereon. Hence there take their rise two great lines of thought, or rather two distinct applications of one and the same thought. On the one hand, this relation has been used to prove something about the maker from the thing made; and thus forms the whole basis of the great argument from design in natural theology,—that argument which, thus sketched in outline by Socrates, has in after-times been filled up and adorned with a great wealth of illustration by Cicero and Seneca amongst the ancients, and by such writers as Ray, and Boyle, and Derham, and Paley, amongst the moderns.

On the other hand, in the firm grasp which we find in this passage of the relation between means and end lies involved the whole of what we now understand by teleological anatomy,that portion of the science which includes all the most brilliant discoveries of Cuvier, and those who have followed in the same line of research. For if there be such a relation between means and end, then we may argue from the one to the other, and from any given means to the end; and, again, from this end to other means; and in this simple process of ascent and descent lies the whole method of this branch of the science. Let us suppose the jaw-bone of some extinct quadruped is before us, and we find that its molar teeth are trenchant and knife-like; from this means we argue to an end of the creature, namely, its carnivorous habits and from this end, thus ascertained, we travel again down to other means, namely, the form of its feet, which we are sure must have been, not hoofs, but claws. Now in this simple illustration, and in every like reasoning, however complicated it may appear, there is but one postulate,-we mean the relation of means to end: and though to us it now seem an axiom, it was not always so; and to the clear enunciation of it by Socrates, in the passage we have quoted, we suspect natural science, no less than natural theology, to be under no slight obligation.

Next in our survey we come to Aristotle, the greatest name in natural history amongst the ancients, as in well-nigh every other department of human thought. His works on this subject, mutilated and imperfect as they now are, would be a sufficient claim to a foremost rank amongst the heritors of fame; but to have been the founder of comparative anatomy, the most accu

rate systematiser of the animal kingdom, and the most scientific of all ancient naturalists, is but a by-work for the mind of Aristotle, and constitutes a claim to renown that is almost lost in the magnitude of his other fame. He not only studied an immense variety of species, he arranged them with that systematising genius which is one of Aristotle's chief characteristics; so that, to quote the language of Baron Cuvier, "the principal divisions which naturalists still follow in the animal kingdom are due to Aristotle, and he had already pointed out several which have recently been again adopted after having once been improperly abandoned; he is the most patient scrutiniser into the habits of animals, the most skilful and scientific of ancient comparative anatomists."

There is one quality in Aristotle which we suspect has done more than any other to bring the minds of other men into subjection to his, and that is the infinitude of his powers of exact observation. One perpetually rises from his pages with a sense that every thing which one ever has seen or thought, or ever can see or think, was known to Aristotle, and is to be found somewhere in his works. What is the use of troubling to unravel nature, or examine and chronicle facts, when you have a perfect index and schedule of all nature and of all facts in the master's works,-when, in fine, you have every thing duly folded up and endorsed, and put into its right pigeon-hole? Turn to the Organon, and you have all logic; or to the Morals, and you have every thought and every difficulty that ever occurred to you in your most speculative moments; and yet such a perfect knowledge of practical every-day affairs as makes one almost believe Aristotle must have been looking over one's shoulder all through life, and jotted down notes of all one's doubts and difficulties. In his natural history it is just the same; you find speculations of the most abstruse kind, and at the same time observations on the most familiar facts-discussions, for instance, whether birth be for the sake of being or being for the sake of birth; and again, notes about the horrid night-wailings of the cats, and dogs eating grass as medicine,-and all these alike put into their rank and place. The universe at first seems a somewhat miscellaneous heap and medley of things; whilst Aristotle seems a well-ordered museum of all that is valuable in it. Why be immersed in matter and picking over the dustheap of creation, when every thing of value is already got out and arranged in the proper place within? This feeling will steal over even a modern reader of the Stagyrite now and then, and we are sure it was one great source of the despotism he exerted over the middle ages. The most observant of all men put a stop to • Biographie Universelle, s. v. Aristote, par MM Clavier et Cuvier.

observation-he had done the work for mankind; and his followers, stunned with the magnitude of his inquiries, abandoned his method in despair, and studied, not his objects of study, but himself.

Aristotle has but little about induction in his logic; but his method in physical science is as inductive as Lord Bacon's. His prejudice against the ideas of Plato must have led him in this direction, and so seconded what was evidently the native bent of his genius. "Every where," says Baron Cuvier, in the article from which we have already quoted, "Aristotle observes facts with attention; he compares them with acuteness, and seeks to ascend towards their common ground; thus his Poetics is founded upon the works of Homer and the great tragedians; his Politics upon the constitutions of a great number of Greek and barbarian governments; and his Natural History upon those infinite observations which the generous assistance of Alexander enabled him to make."

To give some notion of the character of Aristotle's zoological studies, we translate the opening chapter of his Natural History:

"The differences of animals are according to their modes of life, their actions, their characters, and their parts, concerning which we will speak generally at first,-and afterwards we will discuss them in relation to each species in particular. The differences according to their modes of life, their actions, and their characters, are such as these,-that some of them are water animals, some land. The water animals are so in a twofold manner: some because they pass their lives and gain their subsistence in the water, and inhale and exhale the water, and when deprived of it are no longer able to live, as is the case with most of the fishes; whilst there are other creatures which gain their subsistence and pass their time in the water, but nevertheless do not inhale water, but air, and rear their young out of the former element. Of this kind are many footed creatures, as the otter and the latak and the crocodile; and winged animals, as the shag and the diver; and footless creatures, as the water-serpent. Some animals gain their subsistence in the water, and are unable to live out of it, but yet inhale neither air nor water, like the jelly-fish and shell-fish. Again, of water animals, some are marine, some fluvial, some dwelling in salt marshes, and others in fresh marshes, as the frog and the water-lizard; and of the marine animals, some are of the deep water, some of the shore, some of the rocks. And of land animals, some take in and give out the air, which is called inhaling and exhaling, as man and all the land animals which have lungs; but some do not take in the air, and yet live and get their food on the land, as the wasp and the bee and the other insects. I call those animals insects which have incisions along the body, either on the upper side, or both on the upper and on the lower side. Of land animals, many, as I have said, get their food from the water; but of water animals, which take in sea-water, not

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one gets its food from the land. Some animals in the first states of development live in the water, and afterwards change into other forms, and live out of it, as occurs with the caddis-worms on rivers-for from them come the flies. Again, some animals are stationary, others locomotive. The stationary animals are in the water; for not a single land animal is stationary. In the water many animals live by adhesion, as many kinds of shell-fish. It seems that even the sponge has some sensation, an evidence of which is, that it is more difficult to tear it off, if the movement is not made stealthily, as they say. Some animals both adhere and go free, as a certain kind of the so-called jelly-fish for some of these getting free at night, take their nourishment. And many animals are free, but incapable of motion, as shellfish and the so-called holothuria. Some animals are swimming, as fish and the molluscs and soft-shelled animals, as the lobsters; others are walking, as the class of crabs,-for this, though a water animal, naturally walks. Of land animals, some are winged, as birds and bees; and these, again, differ amongst themselves in a certain way, for some are footed; and of the footed animals, some are walking, some are creeping, some wriggling; but not one of them is solely winged, in the same way in which the fish is solely capable of swimming; for even the animals whose wings are of skin walk, and a bat has feet, and a seal truncated feet. And some birds are weak-footed, which are therefore called the footless bird (the swift); for this little bird is strong-winged; and almost all the birds that are like it are strong-winged, but weakfooted, as the swallow and the martin; for all these birds are alike in habits and in their wings, and are similar in appearance. But the swift makes its appearance the whole season, whilst the martin is seen and taken only when it is wet in the summer, for, on the whole, it is a rare bird. Many animals are capable both of walking and of flying. There are also the following differences as to their modes of life and their actions. Some animals are gregarious, others solitary, both of footed animals, winged animals, and swimming animals; and some are both gregarious and solitary. And of both these kinds, some are political animals, others are disunited. The gregarious are such as, amongst birds, the pigeon kind, the crane, and the swan ; but of the birds of prey, none are gregarious; and amongst swimming animals, many kinds of fishes, as those which they call the dromas, the tunny, the palamyde, and the amia: but man is both gregarious and solitary. Those animals are political amongst whom the work of all is some one common thing, which is not the case with all the gregarious animals. Such are man, the bee, the wasp, the ant, the crane; and of these, some are under rulers, some without any government, as the crane and the bee kind are under rulers, the ant and very many others without government. Some, both of the gregarious and of the solitary animals, are local, others are migratory. And some are carnivorous, others fruit-eating, others omnivorous, others feeding on particular things, as the bee and spider kinds; for the former use for food honey and a few other sweet things, and spiders live by preying on flies; and other animals use fish as their food. Some animals hunt, and

some store their food, and some do not. Some have dwellings, others no houses. Of those having dwellings, the mole, the mouse, the ant, the bee, are examples; whilst many insects and quadrupeds have no houses. Again, as to their localities, some are dwellers in holes, as the lizard and the snake; some above ground, as the horse and the dog. And some burrow holes, and others do not; and some are nocturnal, as the owl and the bat; and some live in the light. Again, there are the tame and the wild; some perpetually, as man and the mule, which are always tame, and others wild, as the panther and the wolf. Others are capable of being quickly tamed, as the elephant. Again, in another way; for all races which are tame are also wild, as horses, oxen, pigs, sheep, goats, dogs. Some have the power of making a noise; some are voiceless; others are endowed with voice; and of these, some have a language, others are inarticulate; and some are garrulous, others silent; some songsters, others without song. But all have this in common, that they sing or talk most when rearing their young. Some creatures haunt the fields, as the wood-pigeon; others the hills, as the hippoe; and others consort with man, as the pigeon. . . . Moreover, some animals are given to defend themselves, others to keep watch against danger. Those are defensive, which either make attacks on others or defend themselves when wronged; those are watchful, which have something in themselves which is a means of escape from suffering. With the following distinctions also do animals differ as to their character: for some are mild and hard to enrage, and not obstinate, like the ox; others passionate and obstinate and stupid, like the wild-boar. Others are prudent and fearful, like the stag and the hare; others mean and crafty, like serpents; others generous and brave and well-born, like the lion; others noble and fierce and crafty, like the wolf;-for that is well born which is sprung from a good race; but that is noble which will not depart from its own naAnd some are inquisitive and mischievous, like the fox; others high-spirited and loving and fawning, like the dog; others are mild and tameable, like the elephant; others are modest and ever on the watch, like the goose; others envious and vain, like the peacock. But of all living things, man alone is deliberative; many animals share in memory and the power of learning, but to exercise remembrance no other being save man is able.”

ture.

* Animal. Hist. lib. i. c. 1. The last observation in this chapter, which is to be found in a fuller form in the 2d chapter of Aristotle's tract on Memory and Recollection, is a very interesting, and, as we think, just observation on the comparative psychology of man and the lower animals. Fuller, in his chapter on Memory, in The Holy State, has the same remark. After observing that memory is "twofold, one the simple retention of things, the other a regaining of them when forgotten," he goes on to say, "Brute creatures equal, if not exceed, man in a bare retentive memory. Through how many labyrinths of woods, without any other clue of thread than natural instinct, doth the hunted hare return to her muce! How doth the little bee, flying into several meadows and gardens, sipping of many cups, yet never intoxicated, through an ocean, as may say, of air, steadily steer herself home, without help of card or compass! But these cannot play an after-game, and recover what they have forgotten, which is done by the meditation of discourse."

I

The distinction which we have endeavoured to indicate by the words 'me

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