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Aristotle's Idea of the Cosmos.

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to show what a thinker would have thought if this and that key to a mystery had been known to him; but we must carefully separate between explicit and implicit teaching. It would be quite as true to evolve free-will from poaipsnis, as to evolve consciousness from vipya. And in the passage which Sir Alexander Grant himself quotes from Eth. ix. 9, § 9, there is a clear severance between the two ideas, which we cannot reconcile with his interpretation.

But this is a part of the subject which we regret that we cannot discuss fully now; nor yet the ensuing section upon the doctrine of the Mean-the "Aurea Mediocritas"-which has long been the most striking portion of Aristotle's moral philosophy. In spite of the distinct warning (in Eth., ii. 6, 17), that the consideration of the virtues as mean-states arises only from a particular point of view, the theory has been misinterpreted, alike by his friends and his opponents, as though it were an absolute description. It is a form, and nothing more: it is a way of regarding the subject which is convenient both for classification. and preceptive teaching; but it has no positive value whatever, and in modern ethics is more of an encumbrance than a help.

But we must pass to the last of the essays of which we can at present say anything that "On the Physical and Theological Ideas in the Ethics of Aristotle." Properly speaking, these ideas constitute part of Aristotle's point of view, and should have been brought into closer connection with the previous essay. Aristotle viewed ethics from a physical as well as from a metaphysical stand-point, and both are parts of his method. The one we may call the method of formulæ, the other the encyclopædic method. He was the last of the early encyclopædic philosophers: he tried, like Democritus, Archytas, and the majority of his predecessors, to know and write about everything. He inherited the old feeling of the unity of the world; although, on the other hand, he caused that which has been the curse of philosophy ever since, the notion of the entire isolation of individual sciences. And in reading his Ethics, it is very essential to remember his theory of physical analogies, and his view of ethics as part of the great philosophy of nature. It was a grand and noble idea-that of the perfect cosmos, with its perfect motion and perfect existence, never failing of its purpose, never capable of an abortion; in which man was the only source of confusion, and in which the human will, from its very freedom, was not the most divine of things. For to him the variable was the child of Time, and the immutable was the synonym of the Eternal. The Greeks began their philosophy in wonderment at nature: the first great thought which amazed them was that of its everlasting changelessness-birth and growth, day and night, continually; and the

first generalisation was that of law, or the personification of law in fate. Upon this the notion of human freedom came as an abnormal thing; and the science of ethics only very gradually disentangled itself from mathematics and physics. And although Aristotle, more than any one who had gone before him, separated the spheres of the several sciences, yet the sense of the oneness of the world continually underlies his reasoning. He passes from morals to physics, and from both to mathematics, as though there were little more than a formal difference between them. The modern notion of "comparative sciences" is a return to the truer part of the old theory: it is an immense advance on the previous narrowness of view, and helps us to understand much that seems fanciful in Aristotelian analogies. But our limits forbid us from entering into details: we can only say, that herein Aristotle has never found an abler exponent than Sir Alexander Grant, with whose results, in this case, we almost entirely coincide, especially his sketch of Aristotle's psychology.

And now we are better able to see the position which Sir Alexander Grant, and the school of which he is the reflex, occupy in relation at once to Aristotle and to Oxford.

In relation to Aristotle, they stand half-way between the past and the future, gathering up into themselves the fruits of the one and the seeds of the other. The traditional faith has not quite lost its power: the old Adam, as theologians would call it, keeps continually cropping up; but there are, at the same time, all the elements of a true and rational appreciation. They still move within the sphere of scholastic ideas: it is still "subjectivity obtaining emancipation for itself." For instance, the historical method is very imperfectly applied: there is a relic of the old belief in Aristotle's entire originality, which prevents his being resolved into his elements. And hence there is a want of width of view. Aristotle himself is magnified in relation to other philosophers; and his minor theories are distorted by controversy into important moral or psychological questions, while some of the greater ones are left untouched. For instance, there is the barest mention in the "Essays" of one of the finest sections of the Ethics-the theory of Friendship-which Fritzsch's excellent edition, if nothing else, ought to have brought into considerable prominence. But even in their omissions the "Essays" bear the impress of their origin. And again, we feel the want of a comprehensive view of the formal part of the Ethics; although on this head much has been done, for which we are under deep obligations.

And, lastly, in relation to Oxford itself, this new phase is one of the most hopeful signs of English thought. It is imperfect,

The Future of Oxford Thought.

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but it is an awakening: it is only twilight, but it is the twilight of dawn. And "there is thunder on the horizon, as well as dawn:" there are controversies within the University and without it-battles to be sternly fought, and victories to be hardly won. The easy opprobrium of heresy already awaits all who leave the beaten track. There are some who will not, and some who cannot, understand: on the one side lies the dogmatism of wilful ignorance; on the other, the dogmatism of narrow sight: but enough has already been accomplished to give reality to hope. In the present stage of the movement, there is, no doubt, a marked imperfection: it is at once a reaction and a transitionhaving all the scepticism of the one, and all the partiality of the other. And the development which time will give it, will doubtless tend to modify as well as to complete it. The first promulgation of a new system has a double disadvantage: its leading points are distorted out of their true position, and these accidental exaggerations are confounded with the main theory. And thus this new-fangled philosophy" is liable to be greatly mistaken. Perhaps the very faults which we have laid to the account of Sir Alexander Grant, are in some cases only the fruits of practical wisdom. It may be that he is lingering still in the old paths that the new one may be better appreciated: perhaps he is still an Aristotelian that men may the sooner pass through Aristotle to Plato. But whether this be so or not, his book is a most welcome one; and there are doubtless many, both in Oxford and elsewhere, who will owe to it their first awakening from the long slumber of scholasticism.

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ART. V.-The Powers of the Creator Displayed in the Creation: or, Observations on Life, amidst the Various Forms of the Humbler Tribes of Animated Nature. With Practical Comments and Illustrations. By Sir JOHN GRAHAM DALYELL, Knight and Baronet. Three Vols. 4to, with numerous coloured Plates. Price L.10, 10s. London: John Van Voorst, Paternoster Row.

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M. AGASSIZ, in his recent magnificent work on the "Natural History of the United States," puts a series of questions to students of Natural Science, well fitted to keep profitably before them the only true basis for a satisfactory philosophy of Zoology. When," he asks, " in our pride of philosophy, we thought that we were inventing systems of science and classifying creation by the force of our own reason, have we followed only and reproduced, in our imperfect expressions, the Plan whose foundations were laid in the dawn of creation, and the development of which we were laboriously studying-thinking, as we put together and arrange our fragmentary knowledge, that we are anew introducing order out of chaos?" "Is this order," he continues, "the result of the exertions of the human mind, of human skill and ingenuity? or is it inherent in the objects themselves, so that the intelligent student of Natural History is led unconsciously, by the study of the animal kingdom itself, to those conclusions,-the great divisions under which he arranges animals being, indeed, but headings to the chapters of the great Book which he is reading?" "To me," he adds, "it appears indisputable that this order and arrangement of our studies are based upon the natural primitive relations of animal life, those systems to which we have given the names of the great leaders of our science, being, in truth, but translations into human language of the thoughts of the Creator." The words of M. Agassiz form a fit introduction to the works of one of the most able, industrious, painstaking, and successful of recent Scottish naturalists. Sir John Graham Dalyell laboured from his youth, in the wide and favourable field of study which lay around him, as one who believed that the Perfect Plan of the Creator had been realised, and as one who felt that the true way to make the glory of the Plan manifest to

1 Contributions to the Natural History of the United States. By Louis Agassiz. Boston and London, 1857. In this work, M. Agassiz has given great attention to the difficult subject of Classification. His discussions are carried on in the spirit of a true philosophy. So much of this great work as is taken up with Embryology-proper is full of interest. American art has successfully illustrated the text. We have not seen anything in Britain, on the same subjects, which surpasses the style and execution of the twenty-seven plates, devoted to the embryology of the turtle, from drawings from nature by Messrs Clark and

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others, was, that each student of nature, as he had opportunity and ability, should carefully describe as much of it as he had seen. In this spirit he worked, and the volumes quoted above bear testimony to his success. It augurs well for the healthful influences of scientific study, that so many British naturalists are, in their favourite departments, enthusiastically at work in a kindred spirit. Scotland has, within a comparatively brief period, sent forth a noteworthy band of these. To Geology she sent Murchison, Lyell, Fleming, Jameson, Miller, and M‘Laren ; to Ornithology, Jardine, Macgillivray, and James Wilson; to Aquatic Zoology, Dalyell and Johnstone; to Comparative Anatomy, Goodsir; to Natural Philosophy, Brewster and J. Forbes. Each name is well known in other lands-most of them, wherever modern civilisation has obtained a footing; and all have less or more advanced, by their discoveries and their writings, the great branches of science with which their names are associated. Some of them-as Brewster, Dalyell, Fleming, and Goodsir-have excelled in more departments of scientific pursuit than that in which they are most distinguished. And, were we to look at others than those who stand foremost, we would find that, pyramid-like, the list widens as we descend, until we reach at the base a greater number of men, than could have been found at any former period of our history, well informed in the literature of Natural Science, able to appreciate its generalisations, and to recognise its place of prime importance both in the elementary and in the advanced educational arrangements of the age. It was something for a country like Scotland to be able, at a very recent period, to point to such a list of living Naturalists. But time has been thinning the ranks lately. Jameson, Johnstone, Macgillivray, Wilson, Dalyell, Miller, and Fleming, have, within a few years, been gathered to their fathers, and those who stood foremost are now few. Three of the six referred to have been fully noticed in our pages. We propose to add the name of the author of "The Rare and Remarkable Animals of Scotland" to the list.

As many of our readers as have travelled by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway may have noticed, about midway between the Linlithgow and Winchburgh stations, a softly rounded green hill to the north of the line of railway. It is capped by a prominent circular tower; and the side which looks towards the "wavy Ochills," and down on the "winding Forth," is covered with forest trees, among which stands Binns House, the family seat of the Dalyells. The hill is one of those verdant trap heights which rise in the carboniferous valley through which the line of railway has been carried, and which, while full of interest 'Macgillivray's British Birds, May 1853. Hugh Miller, of Cromarty, August 1854. Scottish Natural Science-Dr Fleming, February 1858.

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