Noting that this is not what Aristotle in so many words
says, but that it is our interpretation of his {306} intention,
which is almost certainly correct, we conclude that man is
not the top of the scale. Next to him come the heavenly
bodies. The planets include the sun and the moon, which,
revolve round the earth in a direction opposite to that of
the stars. Next in the scale come the stars. We need not
go into details of the fifty-six spheres. The stars and plan-
ets are divine beings. But this is only a comparative term.
Man, as the possessor of reason, is also divine, but the heav-
enly bodies infinitely more so. And this means that they
are more rational than man, and so higher in the scale.
They live an absolutely blessed and perfect life. They are
immortal and eternal, because they are the supreme self-
realization of the eternal reason. It is only upon this earth
that death and corruption occur, a circumstance which has
no doubt emphasized that view of Aristotle’s philosophy
which holds the gap between man and the stars to be a
real one. The heavenly bodies are not composed of the
four elements, but of a fifth, a quintessence, which is called
ether. Like all elements it must have its natural motion.
And as it is the finest and most perfect, its motion must
be perfect. And it must be an eternal motion, because the
stars are eternal beings. It cannot be motion in a straight
line, because that never comes to an end, and so is never
perfect. Circular motion alone is perfect. And it is eter-
nal because its end and its beginning are one. Hence the
natural motion of ether is circular, and the stars move in
perfect circles.
Leaving the stars behind, we reach the summit of the long
ladder from matter to form. This is the absolute form,
God. As formless matter is not an existent thing, nor is
matterless form. God, therefore, is not in the {307} world
of space and time at all. But it is one of the curiosities
of thought that Aristotle nevertheless gives him a place
outside the outermost sphere. What is outside the sphere
is, therefore, not space. All space and time are inside this
globular universe. Space is therefore finite. And God must
be outside the outermost sphere because he is the highest
being, and the higher always comes outside the lower.We have now described the entire scale of evolution. Look-
ing back upon it, we can see its inner significance. The
Absolute is reason, matterless form. Everything in the
world, therefore, is, in its essence, reason. If we wish to
know the essential nature even of this clod of earth, the
answer is that it is reason, although this view is not consis-
tently developed by Aristotle, since he allows that matter
is a separate principle which cannot be reduced to form.
The whole universal process of things is nothing but the
struggle of reason to express itself, to actualize itself, to
become existent in the world. This it definitely does, for
the first time proximately in man, and completely in the
stars. It can only express itself in lower beings as sensation
(animals), as nutrition (plants), or as gravitation and its
opposite (inorganic matter).The value of Aristotle’s theory of evolution is immense. It is
not the details that signify. The application of the principle
in the world of matter and life could not be carried out
satisfactorily in the then state of physical science. It could
not be carried out with perfection even now. Omniscience