OF THE NISUS FORMATIVUS. 379 



assistance of the nisus forraativus ; while our ex- 

 planation, on the contrary, is sufficient, without the 

 aid of pre-existing germs, to explain the phenomena 

 of generation. There can consequently be no reason 

 for multiplying the entia, as they are called, unneces- 

 sarily. (A) 



NOTES. 



(A) The nisus formativus produces a being generally resem- 

 bling the parents, but occasionally different. This subject will 

 be fully treated of in the note on the varieties of mankind. 



It is not probable that the ardor of the procreants affects the 

 energy of the offspring. But from the days of Aristotle it has 

 been remarked that bastards are very frequently endowed with 

 great genius and valour, and both ancient and modern history 

 certainly afford many such examples ; and the circumstance has 

 been commonly ascribed to the impetuosity of the parents during 

 their embraces. Shakspeare, in King Lear, introduces Edmund 

 bursting into this indignant soliloquy : 



" Why bastard ? wherefore base ? 

 When my dimensions are as well compact, 

 My mind as generous, and my shape as true, 

 As honest madam's issue ? Why brand they us 

 With base ? with baseness ? bastardy ? base ? base ? 

 Who in the lusty stealth of nature take 

 More composition and fierce quality 

 Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed 

 Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops 

 Got 'tween sleep and wake ?" Act I. Scene 2. 



" Hercules, Romulus, Alexander (by Olympia's confession), 

 Theinistodcs, Jugurtha, King Arthur, William the Conqueror, 



