PARTS OF ANIMALS, I. v. 



vellous. There is a story which tells how some 

 visitors once wished to meet Heracleitus, and when 

 they entered and saw him in the kitchen, warming 

 himself at the stove, they hesitated ; but Heracleitus 

 said, " Come in ; don't be afraid ; there are gods 

 even here." In like manner, we ought not to hesi- 

 tate nor to be abashed, but boldly to enter upon our 

 researches concerning animals of every sort and kind, 

 knowing that in not one of them is Nature or Beauty 

 lacking. 



I add " Beauty," because in the works of Nature 

 purpose and not accident is predominant ; and the 

 purpose or end for the sake of which those works have 

 been constructed or formed has its place among what 

 is beautiful. If, however, there is anyone who holds 

 that the study of the animals is an unworthy pursuit, 

 he ought to go further and hold the same opinion 

 about the study of himself, for it is not possible 

 without considerable disgust to look upon the blood, 

 flesh, bones, blood-vessels, and suchlike parts of 

 which the human body is constructed. In the same 

 way, w^hen the discussion turns upon any one of the 

 parts or structures, we must not suppose that the 

 lecturer is speaking of the material of them in itself 

 and for its ovm sake ; he is speaking of the whole 

 conformation. Just as in discussing a house, it is the 

 whole figure and form of the house which concerns us, 

 not merely the bricks and mortar and timber ; so in 

 Natural science, it is the composite thing, the thing 

 as a whole, which primarily concerns us, not the 

 materials of it, which are not found apart from the 

 thing itself whose materials they are." 



59 B 8) ; also from the logical point of view, as seen in 

 Plato, Theaetetus, 201 e ff. 



101 



