PHILOSOPHERS' STONE.PART 114

from lifelessness to complex forms.They saw nature as organism evolving its innate potentials like roses and flowers growing and protruding their petals.They combined the distinction of the Aristelian extractions and Neoplatonic overtones.The latter had a better organic view of natural process than the scholarship of mechanical materialists could muster.It also reverberated by research into the field of history.The historical philosopher Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803) was very influential in this context of scholarship.He says history is influenced by continuity,evolution and design and his dynamic perspective of history is informed by the distinction to see history as a mechanical process.They do not have a static view of history unlike the enlightenment philosophers'prejudice of postulating one universal reason could be extant at various periods.He showed that as each nation has its own soul and character in the same way,each historical epoch has its own intrinsic value.The philosophy of the