364 THE CLASSICAL TRADITION 



extremes of carnivorous adaptation, as in the case of the 

 cats, of omnivorous adaptation, as in the case of the bears, 

 of herbivorous adaptation, as in the case of the horses, or 

 myrmecophagous adaptation, as in the case of the ant- 

 eaters, are all secondary " (loc. cit., pp. 23-4). 



We have now reached the end of our historical survey of 

 the problems of form. What the future course of morphology 

 will be no one can say. But one may hazard the opinion 

 that the present century will see a return to a simpler and 

 more humble attitude towards the great and unsolved 

 problems of animal form. Dogmatic materialism and dog- 

 matic theories of evolution have in the past tended to blind 

 us to the complexity and mysteriousness of vital phenomena. 

 We need to look at living things with new eyes and a truer 

 sympathy. We shall then see them as active, living, passion- 

 ate beings like ourselves, and we shall seek in our mor- 

 phology to interpret as far as may be their form in terms 

 of their activity. 



This is what Aristotle tried to do, and a succession of 

 master-minds after him. We shall do well to get all the 

 help from them we can. 



