INTRODUCTION. 15 



The so-called solutions of the problems only reproduce, the 

 same facts in a disguised form, and the otherwise vigorous 

 and concise style of the Stagirite degenerates in his explana- 

 tions of meteorological or optical processes into a self-com- 

 placent diffuseness and a somewhat Hellenic verbosity. . As 

 Aristotle's inquiries were directed almost exclusively to mo- 

 tion, and seldom to differences in matter, we find the funda- 

 mental idea, that all telluric natural phenomena are to be 

 ascribed to the impulse of the movement of the heavens — 

 the rotation of the celestial sphere — constantly recurring, 

 fondly cherished and fostered,* but never declared with ab- 

 solute distinctness and certainty. 



The impulse to which I refer indicates only the communi- 

 cation of motion as the cause of all terrestrial phenomena. 

 Pantheistic views are excluded ; the Godhead is considered 

 as the highest "ordering unity, manifested in all parte of the 

 universe, defining and determining the nature of all forma- 

 tions, and holding together all things as an absolute power, t 

 The main idea and these teleological views are not applied 

 to the subordinate processes of inorganic or elementary nature, 

 but refer specially to the higher organizations^ of the animal 

 and vegetable world. It is worthy of notice, that in these 

 theories the Godhead is attended by a number of astral 

 spirits, who (as if acquainted with perturbations and the dis- 



explanations of meteorological processes ; so also in the works De Gen- 

 eratione et Interitu, lib. ii., cap. 3, p. 330 ; in the Meteorologicis, lib. i., 

 cap. 12, and lib. iii., cap. 3, p. 372, and in the Problems (lib. xiv., cap. 

 3, lib. viii., No. 9, p. 888, and lib. xiv., No. 3, p. 909), which are at all 

 events based on Aristotelian principles. In the ancient polarity hypoth- 

 esis, /car' avTiirepicraoiv, similar conditions attract each other, and dis- 

 similar ones (-{- and — ) repel each other in opposite directions. (Com 

 pare Ideler, Meteorol. veterum Grcec. et Rom., 1832, p. 10.) The op- 

 posite conditions, instead of being destroyed by combining together, 

 rather increase the tension. The ipvxpdv increases the dep/iov ; as in- 

 versely " in the formation of hail, the surrounding heat makes the cold 

 body still colder as the cloud sinks into warmer strata of air." Aristotle 

 explains by his antiperistatic process and the polarity of heat, what 

 modern physics have taught us to refer to conduction, radiation, evap- 

 oration, and changes in the capacity of heat. See the able observations 

 of Paul Erman in the Abkandl. der Berliner Akademie avfdasJahr 1825, 

 8. 128. 



* u By the movement of the heavenly sphere, all that is unstable in 

 natural bodies, and all terrestrial phenomena are produced." — Aristot., 

 Meteor., i., 2, p. 339, and De Gener. et Corrupt., ii., 10, p. 336. 



t Aristot., De Coelo, lib. i., c. 9, p. 279 ; lib. ii., c. 3, p. 286 ; lib. ii., c 

 13, p, 292, Bekker. (Compare Biese, bd. i., s. 352-1, 357.) 



t Aristot., Phys. Auscult., lib. ii., c. 8, p. 199; De Anima, lib. iii., c 

 12, p. 434 ; De Animal. General., lib. v., c. 1, p. 778, Bekker. 



