28 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA. 



He, then, and not Empedocles, should be re- 

 garded as the father of the Evolution theory. The 

 poet-naturalist of Agrigentum made, indeed, some 

 observations in embryology, the first recorded, 

 and may thus have been led to some of his fortu- 

 nate guesses at the truth of Evolution ; but there is 

 reason to believe that most, if not all of his theories, 

 were based on a priori speculation rather than on 

 experiment. He had by no means the wide ac- 

 quaintance with nature which so distinguished Aris- 

 totle ; neither did he possess the logical acumen, 

 nor the skill in inductive reasoning we so much 

 admire in the Samian philosopher. So far as was 

 possible in his time, the Stagirite based his evo- 

 lutionary views on observation and experiment, 

 rather than on metaphysical ratiocination, and 

 this is more than can be said of any of his prede- 

 cessors, whether of the Ionian, Pythagorean or 

 Eleatic schools, or of those immediately subse- 

 quent. 1 



Mediaeval Writers. 



The foregoing views of the Greek philosophers 

 found acceptance at a later date with the philoso- 

 phers of Rome, and prevailed, with but slight modi- 

 fications, during the entire period of the Middle 

 Ages. They were commented on by a number of 

 Arabian writers, notably Avicenna, Avempace, Abu- 



1 For an exhaustive exposition of the views of the Greeks, on 

 the subjects discussed in the foregoing paragraphs, consult Zel- 

 ler's "Philosophy of the Greeks." See also Ueberweg's "His- 

 tory of Philosophv." 



