96 MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 



I 



beautiful fancy of the Pythagoreans ahout the music 

 of the spheres ; for, according to Aristotle, they could 

 emit no sound as they moved with their spheres " like 

 the parts of a ship with the ship." To account for 

 the apparent irregularities in their motions, he ima- 

 gined that there were as many additional spheres 

 employed in the revolutions of each body, as it ap- 

 peared to have different motions. 



The necessity of explaining what it was that im- 

 parted to the different spheres their principle of mo- 

 tion, led him to carry his speculations up to some 

 ultimate cause, itself unmoved, in which they had 

 their origin; hence the close connexion with the 

 physical and the metaphysical philosophy of Aris- 

 totle; and hence too the reason why he gave the lat- 

 ter science the designation of theology. According 

 to him, the several spheres of the heavens presented 

 a distinct class of beings (OVO-M) or substances, 

 whose principle of motion he considered to be the 

 vital energy itself in which they had their existence ; 

 but it does not appear that he attributed to them a 

 proper divinity in themselves, although he speaks of 

 them as possessed of a divine nature, for he refers 

 their perpetuity of motion to the ultimate principle 

 or First Mover the Deity of his system. This great 

 first principle he regarded merely in a metaphysical 

 point of view ; for it must be observed, that in his 

 philosophy there is no notion of a Divinity inculcated 

 a* the Creator and Governor of the universe ; it is 

 merely as the sou! the intellect the energy the 

 excellence and perfection of the system that he con- 



