Page:Greek Biology and Medicine.djvu/96

 GREEK BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE approach, and more assuredly the phraseology, may be strange to us, and at first sight seem to represent exceedingly fantastic views. But on deeper consideration, remembering our own actual confusion of thought as to the nature of life and the powers or qualities through which living organisms are alive, sometimes we see that, if we will but change the ancient phrases a little, we shall not find the under- lying thought as alien as it seemed. State the ancient hypotheses a little differently, give them a slight push, see them from another angle, and they will often parallel modern conceptions, themselves admittedly unattached to basic considerations, and therefore, perhaps, insecurely founded. This reflection applies to many of the Hippocratic concepts, to many a view of Aristotle and, as we may hereafter see, to the genially eclectic system of Galen. One must not make an evolutionist of Aris- totle. But if the world of plants and animals was not for him an evolution of species in the modern sense, he recognized most pregnantly its graded continuity. This unbroken grada- tion pervaded the process of embryonic growth, as well as the completed structure of mature organs. Still more subtly it followed the in- [74]