14 COSMOS. 



contrasts of heat and cold, moisture and dry ness, primary density 

 and rarefaction even to an evolution of alterations in the or- 

 ganic world by a species of inner division (antiperistasis) which 

 reminds us of the modern hypothesis of opposite polarities and 

 the contrasts presented by + and , 22 The so-called solutions 

 of the problems only reproduce the same facts in a disguised 

 form, and the otherwise vigorous and concise style of the 

 Stagirite degenerates in his explanations of meteorological 

 or optical processes, into a self-complacent diffuseness and a 

 somewhat Hellenic verbosity. As Aristotle's inquiries were 

 directed almost exclusively to motion, and seldom to differ- 

 ences in matter, we find the fundamental idea, that all telluric 

 natural phenomena are to be ascribed to the impulse of the 

 movement of the heavens the rotation of the celestial sphere 

 constantly recurring, fondly cherished and fostered, 23 but 

 never declared with absolute distinctness and certainty. 



22 The avTinepio-Taari^of Aristotle plays an important part in 

 all his explanations of meteorological processes ; so also in the 

 works de generations et 'inter itu, lib. ii. cap. 3, p. 330 : in the 

 Meteorologicis, lib. i. cap. 12, and lib. iii. cap. 3, p. 372, and 

 in the Problems (lib. xiv, cap. 3, lib. viii, no. 9, p. 888, and 

 lib. xiv. no. 3, p. 909,),which are at all events based on 

 Aristotelian principles. In the ancient polarity hypothesis 

 KCIT avrnrepio-Tao-Lv similar conditions attract each other, and 

 dissimilar ones ( + and ) repel each another in opposite 

 directions. (Compare Ideler, Meteorol. veterum Grcsc. et Rom. 

 1832, p. 10.) The opposite conditions instead of being 

 destroyed by combining together, rather increase the tension. 

 The tyvxpbv increases the Qeppov ; as inversely " in the for- 

 mation of hail the surrounding heat makes the cold body 

 still colder as the cloud sinks into warmer strata of air." 

 Aristotle explains by his antiperistatic process and the 

 polarity of heat, what modern physics have taught us to refer 

 to conduction, radiation, evaporation, and changes in the 

 capacity of heat. See the able observations of Paul Erman in 

 the Abhandl. der Berliner Akademie aufdas Jahr. 1825, s. 128. 



23 " By the movement of the heavenly sphere, all that is 



