PREFACE 



Ix reviewing Karl Bitterauf's book" in 191^, H. Stad- 

 ler ^ described the Generation of Animals as " this still 

 inadequately appreciated work of Aristotle's," and 

 it must be confessed that his description is not yet 

 out of date. It has, perhaps, been more appreciated 

 by men of science than by scholars and philosophers ; 

 but it has a strong interest for both classes of students. 

 Its neglect by scholars and philosophers "^ is the more 

 surprising, since it may, I think, be justly claimed 

 that in this treatise Aristotle's thought is to be seen 

 integrated as it is nowhere else ; for in reproduction, 

 as understood by Aristotle, not only the individual is 

 concerned but the cosmos at large : it is a business 

 in which the powers of the universe are concentrated 

 and united ; and it is the means whereby that 

 eternity, with which, if he could have done it, God 

 would have filled the whole creation from one end to 

 the other, is attained so far as is possible by the 

 creatures that are subject to decay ; indeed, these 

 very beings, animals and plants,** have in Aristotle's 

 view the best claim to the title of " being " (ovo-lo), 

 a much better claim than the lifeless things out of 

 which they are composed, or the objects made by 

 human art : and therefore they merit to an excep- 

 tional degree the attention of the student of reahty. 



* Der Schlitssteil der aristotelischen Biologie; see below, 



p. XXV. 



* In Berliner Philologische Wochenschrift (1914), p. 833. 



' Among the less learned, however, the outstanding 

 achievement of Aristotle in this branch of study has been 

 for at least the last three centuries acknowledged by the 

 title of the popular handbook known as Aristotle's Master- 

 piece. 



•* Aristotle's strong interest in plants is shown by the large 

 number of references to them in G.A. ; see Index. 



