Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

CHAPTERXIV.THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH AND THE GREEK PHILOSOPHY.PAETII.THE mind of the next great teacher who arose inGreece after Plato presented an almost completecontrast to that of the master under whom he hadso long studied. Aristotle's power consisted ina parallel development of two forces which do notoften coexist.1 He joined together a rare degreeof consistent philosophic thinking with an equallyrare degree of accurate observation. This doublefaculty is shown in what he effected. He madethe sciences of logic, ethics, and psychology : hebuilt up those of natural history and politics withthe wealth of knowledge which his experience hadaccumulated.2 Thus his analytic and syntheticenius embraced the whole range of human knowledgethen existing. As Plato threw his vividfancy and imagination and his religious temperinto everything which concerned the human spirit,so Aristotle fixed his aze uon nature which withhim in all its manifestations was the ultimate fact1 Zeller, vol. ii. part 2, p. 632.2 Dollinger, pp. 304, 305.