232 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



other bis theory of perception and of ideas, his 

 amazing observations in physiology and anatomy, 

 and his natural classification of the animal kingdom, 

 induced a positive tendency of thought, an a posteriori 

 method of observation, which awakened the intelligence 

 and predisposed it to a more rational and scientific 

 evolution. His geocentric ideas of cosmogony, his 

 logical forms, the human architecture of the world, 

 his conception of the Being who was the end and 

 cause of motion in all things, were indeed obstinately 

 maintained by the philosophy of Catholics and 

 schoolmen, and served as an obstacle to the real 

 progress of science; but on the other hand, his 

 general method of observing nature, the discoveries 

 which he made, and the tendency of his researches, as 

 well as the importance he assigned to consciousness 

 in the formation of ideas, did much to foster in- 

 dependent inquiry in the history of human thought ; 

 and coupled with the earlier mechanical schools, he 

 prepared the way for the evolution of modern science. 

 This is not the place for tracing the simultaneous 

 course of the evolution of the ideal and mechanical 

 schools during the ages which separate us from their 

 origin ; and while the influence of the one gradually 

 waned, the other gained strength, although in a 

 sporadic way, first among privileged minds, and then 

 more generally. 



It necessarily happened that as the evolution of 

 thought went on, impelled by its early tendencies, 



