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. For
he does not merely describe its material, and say it is this one
element, or those two or three elements, or a compound of all the
elements, but states the ratio (olugos) of their combination. As
with a bone, so manifestly is it with the flesh and all other
similar parts.
The reason why our predecessors failed in hitting upon this method
of treatment was, that they were not in possession of the notion of
essence, nor of any definition of substance. The first who came near
it was Democritus, and he was far from adopting it as a necessary
method in natural science, but was merely brought to it, spite of
himself, by constraint of facts. In the time of Socrates a nearer
approach was made to the method. But at this period men gave up
inquiring into the works of nature, and philosophers diverted their
attention to political science and to the virtues which benefit
mankind.
Of the method itself the following is an example. In dealing with
respiration we must show that it takes place for such or such a
final object; and we must also show that this and that part of the
process is necessitated by this and that other stage of it. By
necessity we shall sometimes mean hypothetical necessity, the
necessity, that is, that the requisite antecedants shall be there,
if the final end is to be reached; and sometimes absolute necessity,
such necessity as that which connects substances and their inherent
properties and characters
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