ARISTOTLE. 49 o 



His views were higher, and his researclies were pushed in 

 the only direction in which they could be made available. 

 He has left us a history of the Cephalopods remarkable for 

 its fulness and accuracy, and equally remarkable for its 

 exemption from the marvels and puerilities which disfigure 

 the same history as delivered by his successors; and although 

 there may be less of observation and fact in his account of 

 the shelled Molluscans, yet we find the same ends kept ever 

 in view, and the incessant effort to attain his object by atten- 

 tion to the habits of the animals, and an examination of their 

 anatomy. The numerous defects, obscurities, and errors 

 which a vain criticism might readily detect in his details 

 under both of these heads, are justly attributable to the ac- 

 cident of position, for he was the first to track the road with- 

 out the guide of a fixed nomenclature, and without the light 

 which analogy could lend, — anatomy at this period being 

 scarcely practised, and physiology almost unknown.* By his 

 own researches he was enabled to characterize several groups 

 of Testacea, with some degree of precision, and to acquaint 

 himself with many valuable particulars of their structure and 

 economy, and although some of his general corollaries from 

 these are hasty, yet even in this minor department of study 

 the Stagyrite claims our admiration for his industry and saga- 

 city, and our gratitude for giving us an example of scientific 

 inquiry which it were well to follow.-f- 



But the spring which welled so pure and copiously had no 

 issue to its waters. Aristotle had no successor in testace- 

 ology among his countrymen : and when literature fled the 

 shores of Attica, and found its unwilling way to Rome, it 

 was unattended by the natural sciences. In the constitution 



stature ; so knowledge, while it is in aphorisms and observations, it is in 

 growth : but when once is comprehended in exact methods, it may perchance 

 be further polished and illustrated, and accommodated for use and practice ; 

 but it incrcaseth no more in bulk and substance." — Advanc. of Learning, 

 p. 51. Duod. Pickering, 1840. — Also Sprengel, Hi.st. de la Medecine, i. 400. 



* " Tant d'eminens sei vices rendus a I'anatomie comparee ct a la zoolo- 

 gie, doiventlui faire pardonner quelqucs erreurs, dont les naturalistcs du dix- 

 huitieme siecle, qui se font une gloire de rebaisser son me'rite, ne sont ]ias 

 meme exempts." — Sprengel, Hint, de la Medecine, \, 398. 



t " Parnii les mollusques, Aristote designe particulierement la seiche, le 

 calmar, le poulpe, I'argonauto, et fait remarquer, ce que Ton niait encore il y 

 a pen de temps, que ce dernier animal n'est pas attache a sa coquille comme 

 les autres testaces. II decrit sommairemcnt tons les organes des mollusques, 

 et mentionne meme leiir ccrvcau." — Cuviek, Hist, des Sc. Nat. i. 1.50.— The' 

 labours of Aristotle have never been more generously or more lu'ghly ap]>re- 

 ciatcd than by Cuvicr, whose own knowledge entitled liim to sit as the judge 

 thereon. Sec the Hist, des Sc. Nat. i. 130, et seq. ; and the Edinb.'Nc\v 

 Phil. Journ. xxiii. 60 — 75. 



