VIII.] ERRORS ATTRIBUTED TO ARISTOTLE. 195 



" Avant Aristote la philosophic, enticement speculative, se 

 perdait dans les abstractions de"pourvues de fondement ; la science 

 n'existait pas. II semble qu'elle soit sortie toute faite du cerveau 

 d' Aristote comme Minerve, toute arme"e, du cerveau de Jupiter. 

 Seul, en effet, sans antecedents, sans rien emprunter aux siecles 

 qui 1'avaient pre"c6de", puisqu'ils n'avaient rien produit de solide, 

 le disciple de Platon decouvrit et d^montra plus de v6rite"s, 

 executa plus de travaux scientifiques en un vie de soixante-deux 

 ans, qu'apres lui vingt siecles n'en ont pu faire," 1 etc. etc. 



"Aristote est le premier qui ait introduit la m^thode de 

 1'induction, de la comparaison des observations pour en faire 

 sortir des ide"es g6ne"rales, et celle de 1'experience pour multiplier 

 les faits dont ces id6es g6ne"rales peuvent 6tre d^duites." ii. p. 

 515. 



The late Mr. G. H. Lewes, 2 on the contrary, tells 

 us " on a superficial examination, therefore, he 

 [Aristotle] will seem to have given tolerable de- 

 scriptions ; especially if approached with that dis- 

 position to discover marvels which unconsciously 

 determines us in our study of eminent writers. 

 But a more unbiassed and impartial criticism will 

 disclose that he has given no single anatomical 

 description of the least value. All that he knew 

 may have been known, and probably was known, 

 without dissection. ... I do not assert that he 

 never opened an animal ; on the contrary it seems 

 highly probable that he had opened many. . . . He 

 never followed the course of a vessel or a nerve; 

 never laid bare the origin and insertion of a muscle ; 

 never discriminated the component parts of organs ; 

 never made clear to himself the connection of organs 

 into systems." (pp. 156-7.) 



1 " Histoire des Sciences Naturelles." t. i. p. 1 30. 



2 " Aristotle, a Chapter from the History of Science." 



