44 SYLVA AMERICANA. 



and eggs with the earth everywhere ; so that when such earth 

 was dug up, and the sun by his heat, had hatched the seeds, they 

 imagined that herbs, plants and animals sprung up, which were 

 concealed therein from the creation. But all the ingenious men 

 of this enlightened age, who have imbibed the sound principles 

 of natural philosophy and natural history, have long ago rejected 

 this ridiculous opinion. The Almighty at the first gave to every 

 living thing its own proper seed, and to each a tendency or pro- 

 pensity to propagate its species ; and established this first and 

 great law to remain unalterable, " Increase and multiply." If 

 from putrefaction, and the heat of the sun, living creatures and 

 plants could be produced, it would have been needless, and con- 

 sequently highly unworthy of the Supreme Being, to have cre- 

 ated so many and so amazingly curious vessels for the preparation 

 of the seed ; for in that case, putrefaction would be equivalent to 

 creation. And if very minute insects and other animals could 

 be produced from putrefaction, and hatched by the heat of the 

 sun, why might not horses, elephants, and other large animals, 

 be produced in the same way ? For in large bodies the mechan- 

 ism is easier, as the matter is more manageable ; but in such mi- 

 nute insects, and, as we may say, such nothings, what wisdom, 

 what power, what inexplicable perfection is displayed, since 

 Nature is never more complete, than in her most minute works ! 

 He must be void of understanding who does not perceive the 

 absurdity of equivocal generation, when he sees a body made 

 with such wonderful art, and adorned with so many thousand 

 pipes and canals, that no mechanic, even the most perfect of 

 mortals, can find out all the contrivance, much less imitate this 

 wonderful fabric ; yet he believes all those things were made by 

 a fortuitous and confused concourse of atoms. For it would fol- 

 low from hence, that a new species both of animals and plants 

 would always occur, neither of which we observe, or have any 

 account. In this case too, there could be no arguing from the 

 genera to the species. In a word, there w T ould be no such thing 

 as certainty, but all confusion. Redi, having a mind to examine 

 equivocal generation, put recent flesh into a glass vessel, covered 

 with a very thin linen cloth, and exposed it to the sun ; after a 



