Page:Greek Biology and Medicine.djvu/139

 THE FINAL SYSTEM: GALEN sense, since he does regard all the parts of the body as having been well and truly placed and shaped by Nature). " But let us suppose he remained true to his own statement that Nature is ' artistic,' — this Nature which, at the beginning, well and truly shaped and disposed all the parts of the animal, and, after carrying out this function (for she left nothing undone), brought it forward to the light of the day, endowed with certain faculties necessary for its very existence, and, thereafter, gradually increased it until it reached its due size. If he argued consist- ently on th's principle, I fail to see how he can continue to refer natural functions to the small- ness or largeness of canals, or to any other similarly absurd hypothesis. For this Nature which shapes and gradually adds to the parts is most certainly extended throughout their whole substance. Yes, indeed, she shapes and nourishes and increases them through and through, not on the outside only. For Prax- iteles and Phidias and all the other statuaries used merely to decorate their material on the outside, in so far as they were able to touch it; but its inner parts they left unembellished, un- wrought, unaffected by art or forethought, [117]