CHAPTER VIII.
THE BIOLOGY OF ARISTOTLE.
The word “Biology” is perhaps only about fifty years old, having first come into prominent use in the ‘Positive Philosophy’ of Auguste Comte. It is now quite naturalised in the vocabulary of science; and there is an article on “Biology,” by Professor Huxley, in the recently published edition of the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ which begins, “The Biological sciences are those which deal with the phenomena manifested by living matter.” Yet still, in the eyes of a scholar this modern compound is an unfortunate one. The Greeks had two words for life, Zöé and Bios: the former expressed life viewed from the inside, as it were—the vital principle, the functions of life, the sense of living; the latter expressed the external form and manner of living, such as a man’s profession or career. Zöé was applicable to the whole animated kingdom; Bios was restricted to man, except so far as, half-metaphorically, it was applied to the habits of beasts or birds. Thus Aristotle divided Zöé into the species “vegetable,” “animal,” and “human;” but Bios into the species “life of pleasure,” “life of ambition,” and “life of
