HAS THE MOLE EYES? 267 



believe it you must read the assertion for yourself. And here 

 are the very words of the authority who, for so many centuries, 

 was accepted as infallible : 



"All viviparous animals have eyes, except the mole" (v^w 



Then, as if a sudden doubt had seized him, and he were 

 frightened at his own statement, the illustrious Stagyrite 

 hastens to add : " We might, perhaps, strictly admit that he 

 has." But another change comes over the spirit of the 

 philosopher's dream; his hesitation vanishes, and he im- 

 mediately repeats and justifies his former assertion in these 

 terms : 



" But, carefully considered, the mole does not see, because 

 he has no apparent eyes externally" (oXwg /ab y&g ovQ' ogy, our 

 iffi /'; r6 tpaveebv 5j?Xoug o<pda\uo{j$)* 



These last words denote I beg pardon of the manes 

 of a great philosopher an absolute want of observation. 

 Evidently, Aristotle had not taken the trouble to look 

 before he made his statement. And do not think that 

 this curious indifference was peculiar to the great master of 

 the Peripatetic School; it characterises more or less all the 

 philosophers of antiquity, as well as too many who have fol- 

 lowed in their footsteps. 



Pliny has simply translated Aristotle when he says: 

 " Among quadrupeds the moles are wanting in the sense of 

 sight " (guadrvpedum talfis visus non est)A 



* Aristotle, " Hist. Animal.," i. 9. 

 t Pliny, " Hist. Nat," xi. 52. 



