124 MrcrRoGRAPHIA. 
kind, I {ee not any fo very great difficulty, but that one may, without — 
much abfurdity,admit: For as there may be multitudes of contrivances 
that go to the making up of one compleat Animate body ; fo, That fome 
of thofe cezdjutors,m the perfect exiftence and life of it, may be vitiated, 
and the life of the whole deftroyed, and yet feveral of the conftituting 
contrivances remain intire,I cannot think it beyond imagination or poffibi- 
Jity;no more then that a like accidental procefs,as I have elfwhere hinted, 
may alfo be fuppofed to explicate the method of Nature inthe A/etamor- 
phofis of Plants. And though the difference between a Plant and an Ani- 
mal be very great, yet I have not hitherto met with any fo coget an Ar- 
gument, as to make me pofitive in affirming thefe two to be altogether 
Heterogeneousand of quite differing kinds of Nature: And befides.as there 
are many Zoophyts, and fenfitive Plants(divers of which I have feen,which 
are ofa middle nature,and feem to be Natures tranfition from one degree 
toanother, which may be obfervd inall her other paflages, wherein fhe — 
is very feldom obfervd to leap from one ftep to another) {o have we,in 
fome Authors, Inftances of Plantsturning into Animals, and Animalsinto 
Plantsyand the like ; and fome other very ftrange (becaufe unheeded) 
dings of Nature; fomething of which kind may be met with, in 
the defcription of the Water-Grat, though it be not altogether fo dire 
to the prefent purpofe. | 
~ But to refer this Difcourfe of Animals to their proper places, I fhall 
add; that though one fhould fuppofe, or it fhould be prov’d by Obferva- 
tions, that feveral of thefe kinds of Plants are accidentally produc'd bya 
cafual putrifaction, lfee not any great réeafon to queftion, but that, not- 
withftanding its own production was as ‘twere cafual, yet it may germi- 
nate and produce feed, and by it propagate its own, that is,a new Species. 
For we do not know, but that the Omnipotent and All-wife Creator 
might as diredtly defign the ftruéture of fuch a Vegetable, or fuch an 
Animal to be produc’d out of fach or fuch a putrifadtion or change of — 
this or that body, towards the conftitution or ftruéture of which, he 
knew it neceflary, or thoughtit fit to make it an ingredient; as that the 
digeftion or moderate heating of an Egg, either by the Female, or the 
Sun, or the heat of the Fire, or the like, fhould produce thisor that Bird; 
or that Patrifattive and warm fteams fhould,out of the blowings.as they 
call them, that is, the Eggs of a Flie,produce a livingMagot, and that,by 
degrees, be turn d into an Aurelia, and that, by a longer and a propot- 
tion‘d heat, be tranfmuted into.a Fly.  Norneed we therefore to fuppole 
it the more imperfect in its kind, then the more compounded Vegetable 
or Animal of which it is a part; for he might as compleatly furnifh it 
with. all kinds of contrivances ‘neceflary for itsown exiftence, and the 
propagation of itsown Species, and yet make it a part of a more com- 
d body: as a Clock-maker might make a Set of Chimes to be a 
ofa Clock, andyet, when the watch part or ftriking part are taken 
way, and the hindrances of its motion removd, this chiming p 
may go as accurately, and ftrike its tune as exaétly, as if it were ftill a 
part of the compounded Antomaten. So, though the original at = 
ePTilz. . > emin 
