28 Greek Biology 



there is, therefore, even more reason to believe, than that 

 mortal animals so originated. For order and defmiteness are 

 much more manifest in the celestial bodies than in our own 

 frame.' 1 It was a misinterpretation of this view that especially 

 endeared him to the mediaeval Church and made it possible to 

 absorb Aristotelian philosophy into Christian theology. It 

 must be remembered that the cause or principle that leads to 

 the development of living things is in Aristotle's view, not 

 external but internal. 



While putting his own view Aristotle does not fail to tell 

 us of the standpoint of his opponents. 4 Why, however, it must 

 be asked, should we look on the operations of Nature as dictated 

 by a final cause, and intended to realize some desirable end r 

 Why may they not be merely the results of necessity, just as 

 the rain falls of necessity, and not that the corn may grow ? 

 For though the rain makes the corn grow, it no more occurs in 

 order to cause that growth, than a shower which spoils the 

 farmer's crop at harvest-time occurs in order to do that mischief. 

 Now, why may not this, which is true of the rain, be true also 

 of the parts of the body ? Why, for instance, may not the 

 teeth grow to be such as they are merely of necessity, and the 

 fitness of the front ones with their sharp edge for the comminu- 

 tion of the food, and of the hind ones with their fiat surface 

 for its mastication, be no more than an accidental coincidence, 

 and not the cause that has determined their development ? ' ' 2 



The answers to these questions form a considerable part of 

 Aristotle's philosophy where we are unable to follow him. For 

 the limited field of biology, however, the question is on some- 

 what narrower lines. ' What,' he asks, ' are the forces by which 

 the hand or the body was fashioned into shape ? The wood 

 carver will perhaps say, by the axe or the auger. . . . But it is not 



1 De partibus animalium, i. i ; 64i b 12. 



2 Physics, ii. 8, 3 ; igS 13 6. This passage is considerably abbreviated and 

 slightly paraphrased. 



