Page:Aristotelous peri psuxes.djvu/250

240 brain is the organ which individualises different, and so enables the mind to compare and judge; it is the organ, too, which, retaining impressions, is the seat of memory, and the source whence imagination draws its images. The mind is again spoken of as higher in nature than aught else, and thus Aristotle agrees with who held that the "mind was the first of all created entities and powers."

Note 7, p. 51. Thus, the reasoning in the so-called  Orphic verses, &c.] The epithet, "so-called," seems to imply that there were doubts as to the author of these verses; be this as it may, they shew that animal life was known to be especially dependent upon respiration. Aristotle's criticism seems to imply that he was not acquainted with respiration in any other form than that of air-breathing animals, and therefore, not aware that the influence of the air upon the system is necessary for the maintenance of life in all creatures. Cicero maintains that "Aristotle denied the existence of the poet Orpheus;" and that the verses under that name were attributed, by the, to one Cecrops.

Note 8, p. 51. If it be well to form the Vital , &c.] The wording as well as the meaning of this objection to the opinion that "Vital Principle must be formed from all the elements" is embarrassed and obscure; and, owing to the brevity of the argument, it cannot be expounded with certainty ; but it seems to