The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-03-24
SCIENTIFIC.
ARISTOTLE AS A NATURALIST

ARISTOTLE AS A NATURALIST.
Whether we look to it's width or to
its depth, we must alike conclude that
the range of Aristotle's work is wholly
without a parallel in the history of
mankind. Indeed, it may be said that
there is scarcely any n department
of intellectual activity where the mind
of this intellectual giant has not exerted
more II less influence-in some cases
by way Of creation, in others by way
of direction. The following is a list of
the subjects On which Aristotle wrote:
Physics, Astronomy, M~eteorology,
Zoology, Comparative Anatomy, Physi-
ology, and Psychology Poetry, Ethics,
Rhetoric, Logic, Politics, and Meta
physics. From his works on Natural
History we find that he mentions at
least 20 species of mammals, $50 of
birds, 20 Of reptiles, 116 of fish, 81 of
a%rtiCulata, and about 40 of lower forms
making close upon 500 species in all.
Aristotle appears to have been the first
philosopher who at all appreciated the
Importance of heredity as a principle,
not only in natural history, but also in
psychology; for he distinctly affirms
that the children of civilized cOmmuni-
ties are capable of a higher degree of
intellectual cultivation than are. chill
dren Of savages. One of the greatest
and most mOmentOus controversies
which the history Ofscience has afforded
is that which took place nearly two
thousand years after the time of Arts
tOtle, with regard to sO-called evolution
rerSus e~pigenesis. The question was
whether the germ or egg of any organ
ism contained the future or young or
ganism already formed in miniature,
and only requiring to be expanded in
order tOappear as the perfect organism,
or whether the process of development
consisted in a process from the indef-
mite to the definite, from the simple to
the complex, from what we call undif-
ferentiated p~rotoplasm to the fully
differentiated animal. During the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
when this subject was most warmly
debated, the balance of scientific Opin-
ion inclined to what is now known to
be the erroneous view, that the germ
is merely the adult organism in minia-
tUre. 1t therefore speaks greatly III
favor of AristOtle's sagacity that he
clearly and repeatedly expressed the
opinion which is known to be right,
viz, that the organism develops out of
its germ by a series Of DETERMINATIONS.
And not only with reference to this
doctrine of epigenesis, but likewise
throughout the whole course of anelabO-
rate treatise on generation, he displays
such wonderful powers both of patient
observation and accurate scientific
reasoning, that this treatise deserves
to be regarded as the most remarkable
of all his remarkable works pertaining
to biology. Looking to the enormous
range of his work in biology alone; re-
Numbering that in this work he had
had no predecessors; considering that
at the same time he was thus a single
handed collector of facts, and a single
minded thinker upon their import; it
becomes evident that Aristotle would
have been something more thanhuman,
if either his observations or his reason
ings could everywhere be justly COM
pared with those of scientific genius
when more favOrably circumstanced.
But it is the glory of Aristotle that both
his observations and his ~reasOnings can
stand such comparison as we'll as they
do. For when on the one hand we re
member the immensely Of his achieve
ment. and on the other hand reflect
that he was worse than destitute Of
any ancestral experience of method,
born into a world of mysticism. nur-
tured in the school of Plato, therefore
compelled himself to forge the intellec-
tual instruments of research, himself
to create the very conception of scien-
tifc inquiry-when we thus remember
and thus reflect, it appears tome there