FROM THALES TO LUCRETIUS. 



19 



hot rain for this purpose, but as an accidental cir- 

 cumstance. It does not appear to be from fortune 

 or chance that it frequently rains in winter, but from 

 necessity." (3) On the question of the origin of life- 

 forms he was nearest of all to its modem solution, 

 setting forth the necessity " that germs should have 

 been first produced, and not immediately animals; 

 and that soft mass which first subsisted was the germ. 

 In plants, also, there is purpose, but it is less distinct; 

 and this shows that plants were produced in the same 

 manner as animals, not by chance, as by the union 

 of olives with grape vines. Similarly, it may be 

 argued, that there should be an accidental genera- 

 tion of the germs of things, but he who asserts this 

 subverts Nature herself, for Nature produces those 

 things which, being continually moved by a certain 

 principle contained in themselves, arrive at a cer- 

 tain end." In the eagerness of theologians to dis- 

 cover proof of a belief in one God among the old phi- 

 losophers, the references made by Aristotle to a 

 " perfecting principle," an " efficient cause," a " prime 

 mover," and so forth, have been too readily construed 

 as denoting a monotheistic creed which, reminding 

 us of the " one god " of Xenophanes, is also akin to 

 the Personal God of Christianity. " The Stagirite," 

 as Mr. Benn remarks (Greek Philosophers, vol. i, 

 p. 312), " agrees with Catholic theism, and he agrees 

 with the First Article of the English Church, though 

 not with the Pentateuch, in saying that God is with- 

 out parts or passions, but there his agreement ceases. 



