[193] It is perfectly possible that Aristotle was not acquainted at first hand with human anatomy. But Sir A. Grant is hardly justified in observing that the words quoted above ‘do not show the hardihood of the practised dissecter’ (_Aristotle_, p 3). Aristotle simply takes the popular point of view in order to prove that the internal structure of the lower animals is no more offensive to the eye than that of man. And, as he took so much delight in the former, nothing but want of opportunity is likely to have prevented him from extending his researches to the latter. [194] _De Part. An._, I. v. [195] Compare the arguments in _Phys._, IV., ix. [196] The hypothesis of the earth’s diurnal rotation had clearly been suggested by a celebrated passage in Plato’s _Timaeus_, though whether Plato himself held it is still doubtful. That he accepted the revolution of the celestial spheres is absolutely certain; but while to our minds the two beliefs are mutually exclusive, Grote thinks that Plato overlooked the inconsistency. It seems probable that the one was at first actually a generalisation from the other; it was thought that the earth must revolve _because_ the crystal spheres revolved; then the new doctrine, thus accidentally struck out, was used to destroy the old one. [197] _De Coel._, II., viii., 290, a, 26. [198] Zeller, p. 469. [199] _De Sens._, vi., 446, a, 26. [200] _De Coel._, I., viii., 277, b, 2. [201] _De Respir._, i. and ii. [202] _De Gen. An._, I., xvii. [203] _Outlines_, p. 30. [204] There is a passage in the _Politics_ (I., ii., _sub. in._) in which Aristotle distinctly inculcates the method of studying things by observing how they are first produced, and how they grow; but this is quite inconsistent with the more deliberate opinion referred to in the text (_De Part. An._, I., i., p. 640, a, 10). Perhaps, in writing the first book of the _Politics_ he was more immediately under the influence of Plato, who preferred the old genetic method in practice, though not in theory. [205] _Meteor._, II., iii., 357, a, 15 ff. [206] _Hist. An._, IX., xxxix., _sub fin._ [207] _De Part. An._, III., iv., _sub in._ [208] This characterisation applies neither to the _Antigone_ nor to the _Oedipus in Colônus_, the first and the last extant dramas of Sophocles. The reason is that the one is still half Aeschylean, and the other distinctly an imitation of Euripides. [209] Cf. the memorable declaration of Mr. F. Pollock: ‘To me it amounts to a contradiction in terms to speak of unknowable existence or unknowable reality in an absolute sense. I cannot tell what existence means if not the possibility of being known or perceived.’—_Spinoza_, p. 163. [210] _Aristoteles von d. Zeugung u. Entwickelung d. Thiere._ Aubert u. Wimmer, Einleitung, p. 15. [211] _De Gen. An._, II., iii., 736, b, 1. [212] _Ibid._, I., xviii., 725, b, 25. [213] _De Respir._, 477, a, 18. [214] _De Part. An._, I., vii., _sub. in._ [215] _Ibid._, II., x., 656, a, 4.