AMONG THE GREEKS 77 



fecting principle' in Nature is only one of a score 

 of his legacies to later speculation upon evolu- 

 tion causation. Many of our modern writers are 

 Aristotelians without apparently being conscious 

 of it. 



Aristotle's method in interpreting Nature has 

 been fully discussed in Lewes' very interesting 

 work, Aristotle; a Chapter in the History of 

 Science, While Plato had relied upon intuitions 

 as the main ground of true knowledge, Aristotle 

 relied upon experiment and induction. He held 

 that errors do not arise because the senses are 

 false media, but because we put false interpreta- 

 tions upon their testimony. "We must not," he 

 said, "accept a general principle from logic only, 

 but must prove its application to each fact; for 

 it is in facts that we must seek general princi- 

 ples, and these must always accord w^th facts. 

 Experience furnishes the particular facts from 

 which induction is the pathway to general laws." 



Aristotle's speculations as to the origin and 

 succession of life went far beyond what he could 

 have reached by the legitimate application of his 

 professed method of procedure. Having now 

 briefly considered the materials of his knowledge, 

 let us carefully examine how he put his facts to- 

 gether into an evolution system which had the 

 teachings of Plato and Socrates for its primary 

 philosophical basis. 



