THE STORY OF PHILOSOPHY2 The Lives and Opinions

ARISTOTLE 45
gave Aristotle, for physical and biological equipment and research, the
sum of 800 talents (in modern purchasing power, some v
$4,000,000 J. It
was at Aristotle's suggestion, some think, that Alexander sent a costly
expedition to explore the sources of the Nile and discover the causes of
its periodical overflow. 7 Such works as the digest of 158 political con-
stitutions, drawn up for Aristotle, indicate a considerable corps of aides
and secretaries. In short we have here the first example in European
history of the large-scale financing of science by public wealth. What
knowledge would we not win if modern states were to support research
on a proportionately lavish scale!
Yet we should do Aristotle injustice if we were to ignore the almost
fatal limitations of equipment which accompanied these unprecedented
resources and facilities. He was compelled "to fix time without a watch,
to compare degrees of heat without a thermometer, to observe the heavens
without a telescope, and the weather without a barometer. ... Of all
our mathematical, optical and physical instruments he possessed only the
rule and compass, together with the most imperfect substitutes for some
few others. Chemical analysis, correct measurements and weights, and a
thorough application of mathematics to physics,
were unknown. The
attractive force of matter, the law of gravitation, electrical phenomena,
the conditions of chemical combination, pressure of air and its effects, the
nature of light, heat, combustion, etc., in short, all the facts on which
the physical theories of modern science are based were wholly, or almost
wholly,
undiscovered." 8
See, here, how inventions make history: for lack of a telescope
Aristotle's astronomy is a tissue of childish romance; for lack of a micro-
scope his biology wanders endlessly astray. Indeed, it was in industrial
and technical invention that Greece fell farthest below the general
standard of its unparalleled achievements. The Greek disdain of manual
work kept everybody but the listless slave from direct acquaintance with
the processes of production, from that stimulating contact with machinery
which reveal? defects and prefigures possibilities; technical invention was
possible only to those who had no interest in it, and could not derive from
it any material reward. Perhaps the very cheapness of the slaves made
invention lag; muscle was still less costly than machines. And so, while
Greek commerce conquered the Mediterranean Sea, and Greek philosophy
conquered the Mediterranean mind, Greek science straggled, and
Greek industry remained almost where ^Egean industry had been when
the invading Greeks had come down upon it, at Cnossus, at Tiryns and
Mycene, a thousand years before. No doubt we have here the reason why
8
Grant, Aristotle, Edinburgh, 1877, p. 18.
*The expedition reported that ^
snow on the mountains of Abyssinia.
8
Zeller, i, 264, 44?
the inundations were due to the melting of the