30 ARISTOTLE AS A BIOLOGIST 



influence I lack the needful learning to fathom and to 

 describe. I can only see dimly, and cannot venture to 

 explain, how his lifelong study of living things led to his 

 rejection of Plato's idealistic ontology, and affected his 

 whole method of classification, his notion of essentials and 

 accidents, his idea of ' Nature ' that ' makes nothing in 

 vain ', his whole analysis of causation, his belief in, 

 and his definition * of, Necessity, his faith in design, his 

 particular form of teleology, his conception and appre- 

 , hension of God. 



And now, to close my story. It is in no derogation 

 of Spencer's commemorative honour that I have spoken 

 of him together with a greater Philosopher, and one of 

 the greatest of men. So I have used my hour of Oxford 

 to speak, and to salute, the name of Aristotle, here where 

 his spirit has dwelt for six hundred years I who have 

 humbly loved him since my day began. 



We know that the history of biology harks back to 

 Aristotle by a road that is straight and clear, but that 

 beyond him the road is broken and the lights are dim. 

 And we have seen that biology was no mere by-play of 

 Aristotle's learned leisure, but was a large intrinsic part 

 of the vast equipment of his mind. 



This our science is no petty handicraft, no narrow 

 discipline. It was great, and big, in Aristotle's hands, 

 and it is grown gigantic since his day. 



It begins in admiration of Nature's handiwork, as she 

 strews it by the way. It bids us seek through the land, and 

 search the deep places of the sea. It toils for the health 

 and wealth of men. It speaks of things humble; it 

 whispers of things high. It tells (if I dare use the old 

 theologian's word 2 ) of Laws, ' whose Voice is the harmony 

 of the World, and whose Seat is the bosom of God.' 



s ex (iv - * Hooker. 



