ARISTOTLE AND THE EARLIER PERIPATETICS vol.I by Eduard Zeller, B.F.C.Costelloe 1897

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METAPHYSICS 891:
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cation in his system, although there are, no doubt,
certain points of them which must be interpreted in
the light of a less rigid logic, or perhaps referred to an
earlier form of his teaching more akin to Platonism.
Presentiments which exhibit themselves in prophetic
dreams and inspired states of feeling are only an obscure
manifestation of the force which under the form of the
Active Understanding unites the human and the divine
intelligence. The 1
beauty of the world, the harmonious
connection of its parts, the purpose observable in
their
arrangement, the splendour of the stars, and the
inviolable order of their motions, point not only to
astral spirits
(in whom we shall have hereafter to recognise
the guiding forces of the heavenly spheres), but
also to a Being placed far above them, from whom alone
the simple movement of the universe and the
harmony
between the whole and all the parts proceed. 2 Conse-
Cic. N. D. ii. 37, 95, which re- cum autem terras nox opacasset,
minds us at the beginning, of turn ccelum totum cernerent
Plato's picture of the dwellers in astiis distinctum et ornatum
the cave (Hep. vii. init.') ' : si lunaeque luminum varietatem
essent, qui sub terra semper turn cresoentis turn senescentis
habitavissent . . . accepissent eorumque omnium ortus et
autem fama et auditione, esse occasus atque inomni seternitate
quoddam numen et vim Deorum ratos immutabilesque cursus :
deinde aliquo tempore, patefactis haec cum viderent proTecto et
terrse faucibus, ex illis abditis esse Deos et haec tanta opera
sedibus evadere in hajc loca, quaa Deorum esse arbitrarentur.' Acnosincolimus,
atque exirepotuis- cording to ClC. A r . D. ii. 49, 1L'5,
sent : cum repente terrain et Aristotle seems to have pointed
maria coelumque vidissent, nu- to the instinct of animals as a
bium magnitudinem ventorum- teleological argument for the
que vim cognovissent adspexis- being of God.
sentque solem ejusque turn ' For the fuller discussion of
magnitudinem pulchritudinem- this see infra.
2
que turn etiam efficientiam Besides the passage from Be
cognovissent, quod is diem Ccelu, i. 9 quoted ra/ra, inn..6at p.
efficeret toto ccelo luce diffusa 395, cf, Metajili, xii. 7, 10(2, a,
392 ARISTOTLB
quently the arguments which Aristotle puts forward,
in the passages indicated, to prove the existence of
God, though based, like those of Socrates and Plato, 1
upon teleological principles—as well as the identification
which he elsewhere establishes between the force of
nature working to fixed ends and God 2 — are not a mere
adaptation of his views to unscientific notions, but are
in harmony with the spirit of his whole system. The
35 sqq., where God is described as
the apiarov or ov evcua, and as thus
the efficient cause of motion in
the world ; but especially c. 10,
where the question is discussed
TTOTeptOS «?X
ei ^ T0 " #Aou (pVffiS t2>
ayaBbv Kal rb frpurrov, .Trorepov
Kex^ptff^evoy ti Kal avrb lead' avrb,
% t))V Tt££ip, t) afjuporepais, Sitrirep
ffTpdrevfia. In the case of an
army the good resides as well in
the general as in the order of the
whole : in the former, however, in
a still more primary sense than in
the latter. The universe is compared
to an army : Ttavra. Se
Stcrre fi7j eTvai Barepcp
irpbs Bdrepov fiilBej/, aAA' ia-rC ti.
trpbs p-ev yap ey airavra avvTeraKrat,
except that each creature is more
fully subject to this order just in
proportion to the nobility of its
nature, even as in a. household
the freeborn are subjected to
a stricter discipline than the
slaves. roiavTT] yap eKdffTov apxh
avruv 7] (pilaris eo-riv. A67W 5' oTov
els ye rb StaKptOTJvai avayKT) airaow
eKBetv, Kal aAAa oiirus einlv av
KotvaveT airavra els rb &'Aov. All
other systems are founded of
necessity upon the opposite principle
: Aristotle's is the only exception,
ov ydp iffTty kvavriov Tip
vpfay obBev (1075, b, 21, 24). If,
like Speusippus, we accept a
whole series of primary principles
we destroy the unity of all being
(see the passage, Div. I. p. 854,
;
1) ra Se tfvTa ov fSo&Xerai iroXireveffBai
KaKus. " ovk ayaBbv iro-
\vK01pavi7] ' els Kolpavos etrTcu."
1090, b, 19, where he is
Cf. xiv. 3,
again attacking Speusippus : ovk
eoiKe 8' 7] aris 47rei