222 Recti's Experiments on the Generation of Insects, 



matter irrelevant to the main subject, as he wanders to various 

 observations on the nature and habits of bees, wasps, and one 

 or two other insects ; but the whole of it is well worth the 

 study of any one who can give their attention to it, and who 

 understands the language; for it has, I think, never been 

 translated, however it may have been borrowed from. 



After some moralising, and some expressions of his dif- 

 fidence and intended accuracy, our author enters on his 

 subject. He commences with some observations on the 

 opinions of the ancients, which were somewhat as follows : — 

 They believed that when the earth issued from the hands of 

 its Maker, it immediately began clothing itself in a green 

 down, similar to that on young birds, which, strengthened by 

 the light of the sun, and the earth's own juices, gradually 

 expanded into herbs and trees; these were intended to 

 sustain the animals it afterwards produced. Not content 

 with this, it aspired to become the acknowledged mother of 

 man ; and the Stoics affirm, that soon after men began to bud 

 forth upon the face of the earth, as we now see mushrooms. 

 Some, indeed, believed this to be confined to particular parts 

 of the world, and the Ethiopians, Egyptians, and Phrygians, 

 all claim this honour for their native countries. Besides these, 

 the Arcadians, the Phoenicians, and Atticans boast of the 

 same glory for their lands, but more particularly the Athe- 

 nians, who, it is well known, wore a golden cicada in their 

 hair, to denote that their forefathers sprang from the earth, 

 as those insects are still supposed to do. Meantime, the earth, 

 says Redi, non ancora ben esperta in questo mestiere *, as yet 

 produced but imperfect animals ; so that sometimes they were 

 seen, this wanting a feature, that a limb, while others again 

 presented a monstrous mixture of different beasts, or even of 

 man and beast. But, still aspiring, she at length succeeded 

 in producing perfect animals, and perfect men. The men 

 were at first little worms, which, by degrees, assumed the 

 human figure. At length, old and worn out, she became 

 sterile; but although she no longer retained the power of 

 generating men and other large animals, she was still able to 

 bring forth insects and such small creatures, as well as plants, 

 supposed to spring up spontaneously and without seed, which 

 power she has ever since retained, and ever will. Some sup- 

 pose this power of the earth to be innate, others that she was 

 impregnated by the light of the sun, or its heat ; and, in short, 

 various other conjectures have exercised the imagination of 

 philosophers. 



* Not yet very expert in this business. 



