GREEK BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE 



cause is still more dominant than in works 

 of art." So it constitutes the nature of the 

 animal or the nature of an organ more than 

 the material of its body or the necessary pro- 

 cesses of its growth or natural formation do. 40 

 [Yet] " in order of time, the material and the 

 generative process must necessarily be an- 

 terior to the being that is generated; but in 

 logical order the definitive character and form 

 of each being precedes the material." 



" But Nature flies from the infinite," says 

 Aristotle in consonance with his Greek tem- 

 perament, and, thinking of the literally un- 

 ending confusion that would result if parents 

 did not produce offspring of the same kind with 

 themselves, he says: "for the infinite is un- 

 ending or imperfect, and Nature ever seeks 

 an end." 41 



So universal Nature, or Nature in the large, 

 and so the nature of the individual animal. 

 As for the natural philosopher, he would be 

 but a crude teleologist, with but a crude notion 

 of the working of final cause, that is, of plan 

 and purposeful utility, did he not find this 

 plan and use in every detail of the animal 

 structure. Since the soul, or life, or the full 

 living functioning is the end or object of each 

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