THE BEGINNINGS OF SCIENCE 41 



of view. It was "to comprehend, to define and to 

 classify the phenomena of organic and inorganic nature, 

 to systematize the knowledge of his own time. He 

 pressed his way through the mass of things knowable 

 and subjected its diversity to the power of his own 

 thought. No wonder that for ages he was known as 

 'The Philosopher/ that is, master of those who know. 

 His great systematizing intellect has left its impress on 

 nearly every department of human knowledge. Physi- 

 cal astronomy, physical geography, meteorology, phys- 

 ics, chemistry, geology, botany, anatomy, physiology, 

 embryology, and zoology were enriched by his teach- 

 ing. It was through him that logic, ethics, psychology, 

 rhetoric, aesthetics, political science, zoology (especially 

 ichthyology) first received systematic treatment." 



These Greeks were keen observers. Aristotle asks 

 such questions as "Why are vehicles with large wheels 

 easier to move than those with small?" and "Why 

 do objects in a whirlpool move toward the center?" 

 He also reasoned that the earth is spherical because 

 during an eclipse of the moon by the earth the edge 

 of its shadow on the moon is an arc. He said that it 

 was therefore possible "that the region about the Pillars 

 of Hercules is connected with that of India, and that 

 there is thus only one ocean." This idea, transmitted 

 to Columbus through the writings of Roger Bacon, 

 a Franciscan monk (1214-1294), influenced him to at- 

 tempt his first voyage of discovery. 



Many other Greeks of this golden age, or somewhat 

 earlier, also contributed to the method and to the 

 facts of science. There is the principle of Archimedes 

 that bodies immersed in a fluid are buoyed up with a 



