Книга только для ознакомления
.) We must, then,
have some clear understanding as to the manner in which our
investigation is to be conducted; whether, I mean, we are first to
deal with the common or generic characters, and afterwards to take
into consideration special peculiarities; or whether we are to start
straight off with the ultimate species. For as yet no definite rule
has been laid down in this matter. So also there is a like uncertainty
as to another point now to be mentioned. Ought the writer who deals
with the works of nature to follow the plan adopted by the
mathematicians in their astronomical demonstrations, and after
considering the phenomena presented by animals, and their several
parts, proceed subsequently to treat of the causes and the reason why;
or ought he to follow some other method? And when these questions
are answered, there yet remains another. The causes concerned in the
generation of the works of nature are, as we see, more than one. There
is the final cause and there is the motor cause. Now we must decide
which of these two causes comes first, which second. Plainly, however,
that cause is the first which we call the final one. For this is the
Reason, and the Reason forms the starting-point, alike in the works of
art and in works of nature. For consider how the physician or how
the builder sets about his work. He starts by forming for himself a
definite picture, in the one case perceptible to mind, in the other to
sense, of his end-the physician of health, the builder of a
house-and this he holds forward as the reason and explanation of
each subsequent step that he takes, and of his acting in this or
that way as the case may be
|
