1 8 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION PART 



ally moved by a certain principle contained in them- 

 selves, arrive at a certain end.' In the eagerness of 

 theologians to discover proof of a belief in one God 

 among the old philosophies, the references made by 

 Aristotle to a ' perfecting principle ' ; an ' efficient 

 cause ' ; a ' prime mover,' and so forth, have been too 

 readily construed as denoting a Monotheistic creefl 

 which, reminding us of the * one god ' of Xenophanes, 

 is also akin to the Personal God of Christianity. 

 ' The Stagirite,' as Mr. Benn remarks (Greek P kilos, i. 

 352), * agrees with Catholic theism, and he agrees 

 with the First Article of the English Church, though 

 not with the Pentateuch, in saying that God is with- 

 out parts or passions, but there his agreement 

 ceases. Excluding such a thing as divine inter- 

 ference with nature, his theology of course excludes 

 the possibility of revelation, inspiration, miracles, 

 and grace.' God is a being who 'does not interest 

 himself in human affairs.' 



But, differ as the commentators may as to what 

 Aristotle meant, his assumed place in the orthodox 

 line, as will be seen hereafter, led to the acceptance of 

 his philosophy by Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, in the 

 fourth century, and by other Fathers of the Church, 

 so that the mediaeval theories of the Bible, blended 

 with Aristotle, represent the sum of knowledge 

 held as sufficient until the discoveries of Copernicus 

 in the sixteenth century upset the Ptolemaic theory, 

 with its fixed earth, and system of cycles and 

 epicycles in which the heavenly bodies moved. He 

 thereby upset very much besides. Like Anaxi- 

 mander and others, Aristotle believed in spontane- 

 ous generation, although only in the case of certain 



