THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



the lungs are bellows to cool the blood mounting from 

 the heart to the head. 



Not content with the admiration the accomplish- 

 ments of Aristotle as a biologist awake in us, the his- 

 torians of the evolution theory go much further. They 

 make him the cornerstone of evolution — thus Os- 

 born supposes that because "Aristotle believed in a 

 complete gradation in Nature, a progressive develop- 

 ment corresponding with the progressive life of the 

 soul," we can examine, "how he put his facts to- 

 gether into an Evolution system which had the teach- 

 ings of Plato and Socrates for its primary philosoph- 

 ical basis. "^® 



If Aristotle had believed and had been able to give 

 any reasons for believing in a system of evolution, he 

 would have been more than a mortal man. To believe 

 in a progressive development by the aid of gradual 

 transitions from the imperfect to a more perfect type 

 within a species is one thing; but to believe that the 

 types of animals which he knew had developed from 

 previous and different species of creatures which had 

 passed out of existence is quite a different thing. The 

 animals and plants which existed contemporaneously 

 with Aristotle were the only ones which he knew or 

 could know anything about, as he had no collection 

 of fossil remains from which to derive inferences; 

 the only exceptions were the mythological monsters 



10 Osborn, From the Greeks to Darwin, p. 48. 



i C 60 3 



