Page:Aristotelous peri psuxes.djvu/267

CH. IV. of bodies fitted for receiving its influences. It is strange that Aristotle, whose teaching was so didactic, should nowhere have given a definition of that principle or being, to which he has assigned so exalted a destiny.

CHAPTER IV.
Note 1, p. 77. But since such beings cannot, &c.] The purport of this passage is almost too obvious for comment, embodying the great fact of the perpetuation of the species, and compensation, by reproduction, for the death of the individuals; and number refers, of course, to individuals, species to the aggregate.

Note 2, p. 78. The term final cause, &c.] This is a kind of parenthetical clause, intended merely to guard against the supposition that the fact of some animals having a fixed habitat, not being locomotive that is, was unknown, or had escaped notice.

Note 3, p. 78. And this applies equally to growth and  decay.] Aristotle perceived, although it may be, that the source of nutrition is through the blood—he perceived, that is, that "the blood is replenished by vessels, which arise on and are spread over the, and which empty themselves into the cava and the