things are only fleeting shadows, which soon pass away; only
ideas remain. The universal concept, or notion, is the only real
thing. Thus the perfect globe is the concept held in the mind; the
marble, ball, or sphere of material is only an imperfect representation
of the same. The horse is a type to which all individual horses tend
to conform; they pass away, but the type remains. His work was purely
deductive. His major premise was accepted on faith rather than
determined by his reason. Yet in philosophical speculations the
immortality of the soul, future rewards and punishments, the unity of
the creation and the unity of the creator, and an all-wise ruler of the
universe, were among the most important points of doctrine.

_Aristotle the Master Mind of the Greeks_.--While Aristotle and Plato
sought to prove the same things, and agreed with each other on many
principles of philosophy, the method employed by the former was exactly
the reverse of that of the latter. Plato founded his doctrine on the
unity of all being, and observed the particular only through the
universal. For proof he relied on the intuitive and the synthetic.
Aristotle, on the contrary, found it necessary to consider the
particular in order that the universal might be established. He
therefore gathered facts, analyzed material, and discoursed upon the
results. He was patient and persistent in his investigations, and not
only gave the world a great lesson by his example, but he obtained
better results than any other philosopher of antiquity. It is
generally conceded that he showed the greatest strength of intellect,
the deepest insight, the greatest breadth of speculative thought, and
the clearest judgment of all philosophers, either ancient or modern.

Perhaps his doctrine of the necessity of a final cause, or sufficient
reason, which gives a rational explanation of individual {224} things,
is Aristotle's greatest contribution to pure philosophy. The doctrine
of empiricism has been ascribed to Aristotle, but he fully recognized
the universal, and thought it connected with the individual, and not
separated from it, as represented by Plato. The universal is
self-determining in its individualization, and is, therefore, a process
of identification rather than of differentiation. The attention which
Aristotle gave to fact as opposed to theory, to investigation as
opposed to speculation, and to final cause, led men from a condition of
necessi