ARISTOTLE. ^g 



are the marine creatures, such as sponges and sea- 

 anemones, which leave the observer most in doubt, 

 for they grow upon rocks and die if detached. 

 (Polyps Aristotle wrongly thought were plants, 

 while sponges he rightly considered animals.) The 

 third step taken by Nature is the development of 

 animals with sensibility, — hence desire for food 

 and other needs of life, and hence locomotion to 

 fulfil these desires. Here was a more complex and 

 energetic form of the original life. Man is the 

 highest point of one long and continuous ascent ; 

 other animals have the faculty of thought; man 

 alone generalizes and forms abstractions ; he is 

 physically superior in his erect position, in his 

 purest and largest blood supply, largest brain, and 

 highest temperature. 



How was this progression effected ? 



Here w^e come to the second feature in Aris- 

 totle's theory, which is more or less metaphys- 

 ical, — it is the idea of the development of the 

 potentiality of perfection into actuality, tlie creation 

 of form in matter. " Nature does nothing without 

 an aim." " She is always striving after the most 

 beautiful that is possible.' Aristotle perceived a 

 most marvellous adaptation in the arrangement of 

 the world, and felt compelled to assume Intelligent 

 Design as the primary cause of things, by the per- 

 fection and regularity which he observed in Na- 

 ture. Nothing, he held, which occurs regularly 

 can be the result of accident. This perfection is 



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