70 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWIN 



it is, the things of the sea have from first to last a 

 notable predominance. 



. . . Throughout the Natural History references 

 to places in Greece are few, while they are compara- 

 tively frequent to places in Macedonia and to places 

 on the coast of Asia Minor, all the way from the 

 Bosphorus to the Carian coast. I think it can be 

 shown that Aristotle's natural history studies were 

 carried on, or mainly carried on, in his middle age, 

 between his two periods of residence in Athens ; that 

 the calm, landlocked lagoon at Pyrrha was one of 

 his favourite hunting-grounds; and that his short 

 stay in Euboea, during the last days of his life, has 

 left little if any impress on his zoological writings. 



Then it would appear that Aristotle's work in nat- 

 ural history was antecedent to his more strictly 

 philosophical work, and it would follow that we might 

 proceed legitimately to interpret the latter in the 

 light of the former. And remembering that Speusip- 

 pus also was a naturalist (of whose writings on fish 

 and shellfish Athenaeus bears abundant testimony), 

 we might permit ourselves to surmise that inquiries 

 into natural history were in no small degree to be 

 reckoned with as a cause of the modification of 

 Plato's doctrine, alike, though not identically, at the 

 hands of Aristotle and of the later Academy. 



Aristotle undoubtedly inherited his taste for 

 science from the line of physicians upon his 

 father's side, perhaps from the Asclepiads, who 

 are said to have practised dissection. He was 

 thoroughly versed in old Greek speculative phi- 



