245. Alfred of Sereshel (Alfredus Anglicus), a contemporary and perhaps a disciple of Alexander Neckam (died about 1217; described by Hauréau^{1} as a realist of rare candour), wrote a number of psychological tracts between the years 1220 and 1227. In one of these, a small treatise De Motu Cordis, we find the Arabian tendencies in physiology and psychology imbibed by Alfred during his travels in Spain. His teaching occasionally borders on the materialism of the ancient Grecian physicians. Life he defines as the actus primus formae, presupposing the material body already constituted.^{2}

{1} Hist. phil. scol., ii., p. 64.

{2} WINDELBAND, Zur Wissenschaftgesch. d. roman. Volker, p. 569, describes Alexander Neckam and Alfred of Sereshel as precursors of the empirical tendency inaugurated by Roger Bacon.