IM'llODUCTION. 13 



The so-called solutions of the problems only reproduce the 

 same, facts in a disguised form, and the otherwise vigorous 

 and concise style of the Stagirite degenerates in his explana- 

 tions of meteorological or optical processes into a self-com- 

 placent difluseness and a somewhat Hellenic verbosity. A3 

 Aristotle's inquiries were directed almost exclusively to 77io- 

 tio7i, and seldom to differences in matter, we find the funda- 

 mental ilea, that all telluric natural phenomena are to be 

 ascribed to the impulse of the movement of the heavens — 

 the rotation of the celestial sphere — constantly recurring, 

 fondly cherished and fostered, =^ but never declared with ab- 

 solute distinctness and certainty. 



The impulse to which I refer indicates only the communi- 

 cation of motion as the cause of all terrestrial phenomena. 

 Pantheistic views are excluded ; the Godhead is considered 

 as the highest "ordering unity, ma,nifested in all parts of the 

 universe, defining and determining the nature of all forma- 

 tions, and holding together all thmgs as an absolute power.f 

 The main idea and these teleological views are not applied 

 to the subordinate processes of inorganic or elementary nature, 

 but refer specially to the higher organizations^ of the animal 

 and vegetable world. It is Vt'orthy of notice, that in these 

 theories the Godhead is attended by a number of astral 

 sjnrits, who (as if acquainted with perturbations and the dis- 



explanations of meteorological processes; so also in the works De Geii' 

 eralione et Intcritn, lib. ii., cap. 3, p. 330; in the Meteorologicis, lib. i., 

 cap. 12, and lib. iii., cap. 3, p. 372, and in the Prohlemce (lib. xiv., cap. 

 3, lib. viii., No. 9, p. 888, and lib. xiv., No. 3, p. 909), which are at all 

 events based on Aristotelian pnnciples. In the ancient polarity hypoth 

 esis, Kar avrLTzeiuaTaaiv, similar conditions attract each other, and dis 

 similar ones (-j- and — ) repel each other iu opposite directions. (Com 

 pare Ideler. Mctcorol. vctervm Grcec. et Rom., 1832, p. 10.) The op- 

 posite conditions, instead of being destroyed by combining together, 

 I'ather increase the tension. The ibvxpov increases the -Qepjiov ; as in- 

 versely "in the formation of hail, the siuTounding heat makes the cold 

 body 'still colder as the cloud sinks into warmer strata of air." Aristotle 

 explains by his antlperistatic process and the polarity of heat, what 

 modern physics have taught us to refer to conduction, radiation, evap- 

 oration, and changes in the capacity of heat. See the able observations 

 of Paul Ermau iu the Abhandl. der Berliner AJcademie avf das Jahr 182.5, 

 8. 128. 



* " By the movement of the heavenly sphere, all that is unstable in 

 natural bodies, and all terrestrial phenomena are produced." — Aristot.^ 

 Miisw., i., 2, p. 339, and De Gener. et Corrvpt., ii., 10, p. 33G. 



r Aristot., De Coslo, lib. i., c. 9. p. 279 ; hb. ii., c. 3, p. 28G ; lib. ii., c 

 13, p. 292, Bekker. (Compare Biese, bd. i., s. 3.52-1, 357.) 



\ Aristot, Phys. Aiiscult., lib. ii., c. 8, p. 199; De Avimn, lib. iii.. c 

 12, p. 434; De Animal. General., lib. v., c. 1, p 778. Bekker. 



