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There can be no doubt that through much of the Aristotelian writings runs a belief in a kinetic as distinct from a static view of existence. It cannot be claimed that he regarded the different kinds of living things as actually passing one into another, but there can be no doubt that he fully realized that the different kinds can be arranged in a series in which the gradations are easy. His scheme would be something like that represented on p. 30 (ssss1).

‘Nature,’ he says, ‘proceeds little by little from things lifeless to animal life in such a way that it is impossible to determine the exact line of demarcation, nor on which side thereof an intermediate form should lie. Thus, next after lifeless things in the upward scale comes the plant, and of plants one will differ from another as to its amount of apparent vitality; and, in a word, the whole genus of plants, whilst it is devoid of life as compared with an animal, is endowed with life as compared with other corporeal entities. Indeed, there is observed in plants a continuous scale of ascent towards the animal. So, in the sea, there are certain objects concerning which one would be at a loss to determine whether they be animal or vegetable.’[26]