202 ERRORS ATTRIBUTED TO ARISTOTLE. 



" Avant Aristote la philosophic, entierement speculative, se per- 

 dait dans les abstractions depourvues de fondement ; la science n'ex- 

 istait pas. II semble qu'elle soit sortie toute faite du cerveau d'Aris- 

 tote comine Minerve, toute armee, du cerveau de Jupiter. Seul, en 

 effet, sans antecedents, sans rien emprunter aux siecles qui Tavaient 

 precede, puisqu'ils n'avaient rien produit de solide, le disciple de 

 Platon decouvrit et demontra plus de verites, executa plus de tra- 

 vaux scientifiques en un vie de soixante-deux ans, qu'apres lui vingt 

 siecles n'en ont pu faire," * etc. etc. 



" Aristote est le premier qui ait introduit la methode de Tin- 

 duction, de la comparaison des observations pour en faire sortir des 

 id6es gen6rales, et celle de 1'experience pour multiplier les faits dont 

 ces idees generates peuvent etre deduites." ii. p. 515. 



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

 " on a superficial examination, therefore, he [Aristotle] 

 will seem to have given tolerable descriptions ; especi- 

 ally if approached with that disposition to discover mar- 

 vels 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 ana- 

 tomical description of the least value. All that he knew 

 may have been known, and probably was known, with- 

 out 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 com- 

 ponent parts of organs ; never made clear to himself the 

 connection of organs into systems." (pp. 156-7.) 



In the face of the description of the heart and lungs, 



* "Histoire des Sciences Naturelles." t. i."p. 130. 

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



