ARISTOTLE. 



55 



SECTION II. 



Account of Aristotle's History of Animals. 



Aristotle's Ideas respecting the Soul— His Views of Anatomy and 

 Physiology — Introduction to his History of Animals, consisting 

 of Aphorisms or general Principles — His Division of Animals ; 

 their external Parts ; their Arrangement into Families ; their in- 

 ternal Organs ; Generation, &c. 



Of all the sciences, it has been remarked, that which 

 owes most to Aristotle is the natural history of ani- 

 mals. Not only was he acquainted with numerous 

 species, he also described them according to a com- 

 prehensive and luminous method, which perhaps 

 none of his successors have approached; arrang- 

 ing the facts observed, not according to the species, 

 but according to the organs and functions, which 

 affords the only means of establishing comparative 

 results. It may in fact be said, that besides being 

 the oldest author on comparative anatomy whose 

 writings we possess, he was likewise one of those 

 who have treated that part of natural history with 

 most genius, and best deserves to be taken as a 

 model. The principal divisions which are still adopt- 

 ed by naturalists in the animal kingdom are those 

 of Aristotle, and he proposed some which have been 

 resumed after having been unjustly rejected. If 

 we examine the foundation of these great labours, 

 we shall find that they all rest on the same method. 



