REFLECTIONS AND CONCLUSION. 381 



atoms, and were, consequently, adherents of what is 

 now known as the monistic or mechanical theory of 

 the universe. This can be predicated especially of 

 Democritus, the founder of Atomism and the fore- 

 runner of Materialism. 



But it was reserved for " the wisest of wise 

 Greeks, the Stagirite," to develop the teleological 

 ideas of Anaxagoras, and to show that the succes- 

 sion of the myriad forms of terrestrial life was due, 

 not to simple fortuity but to the continued, or at 

 least to the preordaining action, of an intelligent, 

 efficient Cause or Prime Mover. Whether Aristo- 

 tle believed that God is immanent in nature, and 

 continually working through the agency of natural 

 causes, or conceived Him as preordaining from the 

 beginning all the harmony we now observe, is open 

 to question, but it is quite clear that he was a firm 

 believer in Evolution in its modern sense, as opposed 

 to the theory of special creations. His theistic views 

 are, indeed, in marked contrast with the agnostic and 

 materialistic teachings of the lonians, and of the 

 earlier and later materialistic schools, especially of 

 those represented by Empedocles, Democritus, Epi- 

 curus and Lucretius. 



In the Stagirite's doctrines, too, we find the 

 germs of those views on creation which were devel- 

 oped later on with such wonderful fullness, and in 

 such marvelous perfection, by those great Doctors 

 of the Church, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine and 

 Thomas Aquinas. According to Aristotle it was 

 necessary, that is, in compliance with natural law, 

 that germs, and not animals, should have been first 



