PROBLEMS OF BIOLOGY 325 



of consciousness and intelligence and the mystery of the 

 reasoning soul ; for these things are not for the biologist at 

 all, but constitute the Psychologist's scientific domain. 



In Wonderment, says Aristotle, does philosophy begin, 1 

 and more than once he rings the changes on the theme. Now, 

 as in the beginning, wonderment and admiration are the 

 portion of the biologist, as of all those who contemplate the 

 heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that in them is. 



And if Wonderment springs, as again Aristotle tells us, 

 from ignorance of the causes of things, it does not cease when 

 we have traced and discovered the proximate causes, the 

 physical causes, the efficient causes of our phenomena. For 

 behind and remote from physical causation lies the End, the 

 Final Cause of the philosopher, the reason Why, in the which 

 are hidden the problems of organic harmony and autonomy, 

 and the mysteries of apparent purpose, adaptation, fitness 

 and design. Here, in the region of Teleology, the plain 

 rationalism that guided us through the physical facts and 

 causes begins to disappoint us, and Intuition, which is of 

 close kin to Faith, begins to make herself heard. 



And so it is that, as in Wonderment does all philosophy 

 begin, so in Amazement does Plato teach us that all our philo- 

 sophy comes to an end. 2 Ever and anon, hi presence of the 

 magnolia naturae, we feel inclined to say with the poet, 



Ou yap rt vvv ye *d^#e9, aXX' aet TTOTC 

 ZT) raOra, /couSet? olSev $ OTOV y <f>dvr). 



1 These things are not of to-day nor yesterday, but ever- 

 more, and no man knoweth whence they came.' 



I will not quote the noblest words of all that come into 

 my mind; but only the lesser language of another of the 

 greatest of the Greeks : ' The ways of His thoughts are as 

 paths in a wood thick with leaves, and one seeth through them 

 but a little way.' 



D'ABCY WENTWOETH THOMPSON 



1 Metaph., I. ii. 9826, 12, etc. * Cf. Coleridge, Biogr. Lit. 



