"Translation being the first of movements, and being reducible to circular, linear, and mixed, the question arises: Which of these is the most perfect? which represents the infinite, continuous, uniform motion of the First Mover? Not the mixed, since that is a combination of the two others. Not the linear, since a straight line is necessarily finite, and if a body were to move eternally along it, there must be a return, which would produce contrary movements, and moments of repose, which would be solutions of continuity. The circular therefore alone remains: in the circle there is no solution of continuity: the motion may be eternal in it. This demonstration of circular movement as the most perfect, played a conspicuous part in peripatetic philosophy. Yet the reader sees at once how entirely it is removed from reality, how purely verbal its basis, how utterly unscientific. The same may be said of all the ideas expounded in the Physics; and we need bestow no more time upon them."
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Aristotle: a Chapter from the History of Science
Aristotle: a Chapter from the History of Science, including Analyses of Aristotle's Scientific Writings was written by George Henry Lewes and published in 1864.
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