THE FINAL SYSTEM: GALEN 



The comparatively short but compendious 

 treatise On the Natural Faculties,'^'' that is to 

 say, the powers inherent in the physis or 

 nature of the human individual, reflects many 

 of Galen's characteristics, and may be noticed 

 briefly. 



The ancients, Galen for example, were more 

 addicted to personification than ourselves, who 

 have substituted processes for persons, thus 

 using a more commonplace word to express 

 what is still mysterious. The " processes of 

 nature " is a common phrase, while Galen 

 thinks of nature somewhat as an artist, accom- 

 plishing her works by rexvr], which is art. The 

 human physis or nature is endowed with its 

 own powers of attraction and repulsion. More 

 broadly and perhaps profoundly speaking, it is 

 alive, possessed of life, which is the sum of 

 its natural powers. Galen is not far from 

 modern vitalistic thinking.®^ 



It has been said that there were many 

 Galens; and, indeed, the tract before us ex- 

 hibits various intellectual processes and 

 methods which we should be surprised to find 

 combined in any one modern person. In it 

 Galen is biologist as well as physician. It 

 evinces penetrating observation, with close 



[III] 



