

ARISTOTELIAN PHYSICS. 55 



Cause is the matter of which any thing is made, as 

 bronze of a statue, and silver of a phial ; another is 

 the form and pattern, as the Cause of an octave is 

 the ratio of two to one ; again, there is the Cause 

 which is the origin of the production, as the father 

 of the child ; and again, there is the End, or that 

 for the sake of which anything is done, as health 

 is the cause of walking." These four kinds of Cause, 

 the material, the formal, the efficient, and the final, 

 were long leading points in all speculative inquiries; 

 and our familiar forms of speech still retain traces 

 of the influence of this division. 



It is my object here to present to the reader in 

 an intelligible shape, the principles and mode of 

 reasoning of the Aristotelian philosophy, not its 

 results. If this were not the case, it would be easy 

 to excite a smile by insulating some of the passages 

 which are most remote from modern notions. I 

 will only mention, as specimens, two such passages, 

 both very remarkable. 



In the beginning of the book " On the Heavens," 

 he proves 19 the world to be perfect, by reasoning of 

 the following kind : " The bodies of which the world 

 is composed are solids, and therefore have three 

 dimensions ; now three is the most perfect number ; 

 it is the first of numbers, for of one we do not speak 

 as a number ; of two we say both ; but three is the 

 first number of which we say all ; moreover, it has 

 a beginning, a middle, and an end." 

 19 De Ccelo, i. 1. 



