( 88 ) 



terreftrial animals ^^-]^cll have many leet, nor as tliofe in the water 

 do tor the moll part, that is, by moving the feet fucceflivcly one 

 after another ; but this creature, with great fwiftnefs, moved all its 

 limbs at the fame inllant, io that \\ itii a fingle llroke it moved very 

 quickly and made much way in the water. 



Here we find another convincing proof, with how many per- 

 fections fo minute an animalcule is endowed, as well in regard 

 to the llructure of its body, as to its innate diJpofition, or the in- 

 flinct whereby it is pompted, when the eggs arc fully gro\S'n within 

 its body, to place them on the outlide of it, and to the intent (as 

 feems to me) to protect the eggs from being injured or devoured 

 by other, animalcules ; and that the young ones, when in a perfedl 

 Hate, are able to diicngage themfelves from the eggs. And who 

 can difcover all the farther perfcdiions with which fo minute and (to 

 us) inligniligant a creature n)ay be endowed ? 



^^^hen, therefore, we lee thefe wonderful properties in fo fmall 

 and, to us, contemj)tib]e a creature ; and, moreover, figure to our- 

 felvee in imagination what farther we can fuppofe concealed in it, 

 can any one with reafon fuppofe that fo many perfeclions are pro- 

 duced fpontaneoufly, or by chance ? But we lliall be a thoufand 

 times nearer the truth, if we lay it down as an axiom or indifput- 

 able fact, that all the living creatures we behold at this day, how- 

 -ever minute, derive their origin from thole which were formed at 

 the Creation. 



I have frequently declared this to be ray opinion, and fliould not 

 now have touched upon the fubjecl", were it not that I find, by 

 experience, moll men Hill adhering to the old opinion, and the 

 follies of antiquity, that many minute animalcules are produced 

 fpontaneously. 



But if we fee fo much pcrfeAion, as well in the make of the body 



^s in the aptitude to propagate its kind, in the animalcule of which 



I have been treating, \se may, by parity of reafonlng, conclude, 



that the fame perfection muft necelfarily exill in the miiiutcft filhea 



