41 



For early thinkers, untrained in the methods 

 and unaware of the limits of thought, even for 

 the great and free thinkers of Greece, a cap- 

 tivating analogy was irresistible 1 ; while inventing 

 schemes of thought they believed themselves to 

 be describing the processes of nature. Moreover 

 it has been the temptation of philosophers of all 

 times, and even of Harvey himself than whom 

 none had put better the conditions of scientific 

 method, to suppose that by means of abstraction 

 kinds may be apprehended; that thus they may 

 get nearer to the inmost core of things ; that by 

 purging away the characters of individuals they 

 may detect the essence and cause of individuation 



St Thomas it was matter. For all "vitalists" the identity 

 of form, soul and life is essential ; thus Stahl regarded soul as 

 bestowing on body all activity, as determining all vital functions. 

 In Aristotle ^xt is untranslatable = anima and animus soul 

 and vital principle. Uvcvpa again in various writers may mean 

 anything, from air to spirit or other essence; cf. Arist. De 

 Generat. An. n. 3, and the "aura" of Harvey, and even of 

 Haller in the same connexion as the fertilising element. 



1 Not for all, not for the greatest of them ! Aristotle, in 

 vain, warned later generations against prophesying what 

 seems likely, instead of looking to see how things come 

 about : " OVK aXrjdrj \fyovTes, aXXa ^avrevofifvot TO crv/ijS^tro- 



pfVOV K TWV (IKOTtoV, KQ\ irpO(T\a.nfta.VOVT(S (OS OVTWS *X OV ""P*" 



yivofjifvov otra>9 t8eTi>." (De Gen. Anim. iv. i.) "Croire tout ce 

 qu'on reve," if useful and possibly admirable in its day, in 

 "neo- Hegelians" is a little stale. 



