Page:Aristotelous peri psuxes.djvu/258

248 Note 7, p. 59. And the roots are analogous to the mouth, &c.] This is one of those suggestive allusions which characterise Aristotle's writings, and seem to have anticipated knowledge that was yet to be realised; for had it been worked out, science might long since have been in possession of the doctrine of homology. The passage shews that Aristotle had perceived that parts might be designated after their functions rather than their forms, for it is the same process in plants, he observes, only they take in food by their roots, out of the earth, already concocted, and hence they have no excrementitious matter; as for them, the soil and its warmth are as a stomach, while animals have within them a soil, that is a stomach, from which they draw nutrition, as plants do from the earth, until digestion have been completed."

Note 8, p. 60. It is, therefore, to no purpose.] An exemplification of matter and form, as body and Vital Principle, by the analogy of wax and the impress or form given to it by the seal; for these may typify a reality, as a statue may typify a reality in the form given to the marble.

Note 9, p. 60. It has thus then been explained.] This is a wider and closer exemplification than had been given, both of the nature and influence of Vital Principle as the essence in living bodies—for it is to the living body, according to this analogy, what the special property is to