112 Science Religion and Reality 



relation to the functions to which they minister, that it is impossible 

 to imagine anything better. Thus, following the AristoteHan 

 principle that Nature makes nought in vain, Galen seeks to justify 

 the form and structure of all the organs — nay, of every part of every 

 organ — with reference to the functions for which he believes they 

 are destined. We are thus in the presence of a work that is not, 

 strictly speaking, a treatise either of Anatomy or of Physiology, 

 but in which Anatomy and Physiology are subservient to a particular 

 doctrine and are used to justify the ways of God to man. We 

 have, in fact, the thesis of final causes applied to the study of the 

 animal organism. 



The problem of final causes is developed by Galen along 

 definite lines. He considers that it is possible to discover the end 

 served by every part of the animal, and, moreover, to show that 

 such a part, being perfectly adapted to its end, could not be con- 

 structed other than as it is. To say this is to go even further than 

 the " Bridgewater Treatises " which undertook to demonstrate the 

 " Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as manifested in the 

 Creation." It is to claim that in every work of Creation, and in 

 every detail of such work, we can demonstrate these attributes 

 along the lines of known principles. It is to claim, in fact, ia com- 

 plete knowledge of the laws of Nature. No flamboyant modern 

 man of science, however inflated with confidence drawn from the 

 most sweeping presentations of scientific determinism, however 

 intoxicated with his own scientific achievements, has as yet arrogated 

 such powers to himself. To conceive that such claims should be 

 made by a pious theistically minded author, the reader must think 

 himself back into a very diflFerent philosophical environment from 

 that to which we are nowadays accustomed. 



The prevailing philosophy of Galen's world was the Stoic 

 scheme, so admirable and beautifully expounded by his royal master, 

 Marcus Aurelius. There were, of course, other systems of 

 philosophy in vogue — Epicurean, Gnostic, Neoplatonic, and the 

 rest, to say nothing of the various Oriental cults, such as that of 

 Persian Mithra, of Egyptian Isis, of Phrygian Cybele, that were 

 permeating the Empire. None of these systems, how.ever, 

 interested their followers in phenomena, nor was there any system 

 but that of the Stoics which could make an appeal at once to men 

 of action and to men of scientific knowledge. 



Now, in the world of the Stoic philosopher all things were 



