ORDER IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE 281 



sized, both in its abstract principles and in its concrete 

 application. Only thus will students be led to philosophic 

 wisdom. 



It is wisdom that we intend to give our students. Even the 

 meager participation of full human wisdom which the phi- 

 losophy of nature gives is of great value.^^ Such wisdom is 

 communicated to students through a twofold process on the 

 part of the teacher, information and formation. The teacher 

 is interested in teaching the students to think for themselves, 

 to acquire firm habits of correct reasoning, to achieve personal 

 insights, to understand rather than to memorize formulae. 

 This formation is given, not by abstract exercises, but through 

 a process of information wherein the student assimilates the 

 wisdom of the ages, the fruits of a rich tradition. There can 

 be no question of wasting time by letting untrained students 

 try to discover for themselves the wisdom that it took more 

 than twenty centuries to acquire. A realistic ordination of 

 natural philosophy to the minds of undergraduate students will 

 emphasize information by which minds will come into posession 

 of the basic doctrines of the science. But if natural philosophy 

 is presented with correct order, the cherished goal of formation 

 will be achieved in and through the process of information. 



Order, then, is the key-word to the correct presentation of 

 the philosophy of nature. Definite order is required by the 

 nature of the human mind and its goal of science. Order is 

 existent in physical reality and imposes itself on the science 

 of that reality. The minds of students of philosophy, condi- 

 tioned by special modes of receptivity, require a particular 

 ordination of natural philosophy to their own degree of develop- 

 ment. We may say, by analogy, that order is the soul of the 

 universe, " the form that knits the whole world," *- The con- 

 templation of this order in the science of nature will elevate 



" Cf. Contra Gent., II, 1-4. 



*^ Dante, The Divine Comedy, Paradise, Canto 33, 1.92, transl. Lawrence Binyon 

 (New York, The Viking Press, 1947) . Cf. Contra. Gent., II, 39; III, 97. 



