26 HISTORY OF SCIENCE. 



These brief notes of Plato's speculation will serve to show that 

 physical science, mathematics, physiology, psychology, philosophy, 

 and theology had not as yet been considered as offering distinct fields 

 for investigation. Perhaps the most noteworthy thing about the 

 "Timseus" is the fact that in it we find for the first time described in 

 the author's own words a conception of the universe as a whole. Until 

 the idea of unity underlying the multifarious phenomena of the world 

 had taken possession of men's minds, there was nothing to prompt 

 observation or to direct research. That these earlier efforts to under- 

 stand the world should have produced only erroneous schemes was 

 inevitable. The real materials for the edifice of science were not yet 

 at hand. They were, in fact, almost altogether unknown, reposing in 

 secret stores, whence long and patient toil was required to draw them 

 forth and to lay them upon sure and firm foundations. But it was 

 essential to the work that the possibility of the structure should be fore- 

 seen, and that some previsional design should set forth the grandeur 

 and beauty which such an edifice might assume. The design neces- 

 sarily took the tone and colour of the materials which presented them- 

 selves to the eye and lay nearest to the hand. The scheme of science 

 which Plato has left in the "Timseus " maybe regarded as little more 

 than such a sketch dashed off in a half-playful mood. Serious at- 

 tempts to build, before the right materials had been obtained, were 

 not wanting, as we shall see in the case of some doctrines of Plato's 

 great disciple, who oftentimes used a priori assumptions in his founda- 

 tions, and supported his superstructure with pillars and buttresses 

 made of false or merely verbal analogies. 



ARISTOTLE (B.C. 384 322) is the most famous representative of 

 the science of the ancients. He was born at Stagyra, an unimportant 

 town on the coast of Thrace. His father was a physician to the 

 Macedonian King Philip II., a position which not only determined 

 the direction of Aristotle's studies "towards natural science, but led 

 to his subsequent appointment as tutor to Alexander the Great. 

 Aristotle, after his father's death, went to Athens, where he became 

 one of the most diligent pupils of Plato. When Aristotle was forty- 

 one years of age and Alexander a boy of thirteen, Philip committed 

 the education of the young prince to the care of the philosopher. 

 The pupil, who afterwards became so famous, received with deference 

 the instructions of his preceptor, and retained great respect for his 

 learning. Aristotle left many treatises, a considerable number of 

 which are still extant. 



Until the rise of modern science in the fifteenth century, Aristotle 

 exercised an unbounded influence over the course of scientific thought, 

 and his authority in all matters relating to the knowledge of nature 

 was regarded as final. Aristotle has often been represented as the 

 exact opposite of Plato in his method as well as in his matter. Thus 

 in Raphael's great fresco painting in the Vatican, entitled "The School 



