GENERATIVE PRINCIPLE 23 



"Nature's own work, no artificial steed. 

 His dam a mare, a griffin fierce his sire 

 Who 'queathed his plumage and his wings, indeed 

 His head and fore feet and the beak entire. 

 In other parts he to the mare came nigher ; 

 Fleet as the wind was Hyppogriff in speed." 



But at last the great mother, perceiving that such 

 monstrosities were neither good nor likely to endure, and 

 having become more expert in the art of generation, 

 succeeded in producing men and animals according to 

 their species. Democritus bears witness that men first 

 appeared in the form of small worms, which little by little 

 assumed human shape; or, as Anaximander relates, on 

 escaping from the womb of Earth they were enveloped 

 in a kind of rough, spiny skin, not unlike the burr of a 

 chestnut. After a long period of fertility, during which 

 many monstrous and marvelous generations were brought 

 forth, the Earth Mother became at last exhausted and 

 sterile and lost her power of producing men and the 

 larger animals, still she retained enough vigor to bring 

 forth (besides plants that are presumed to be generated 

 spontaneously) certain small creatures such as flies, 

 wasps, spiders, ants, scorpions, and all the other ter- 

 restrial and aerial insects, called by the Greeks eVo/xaCdJa 

 and by the Latins, insecta animalia. The schools, both 

 ancient and modern, all agree in this, and constantly 

 teach that the Earth has continued to produce these crea- 

 tures and will produce them so long as she exists. They 

 do not, however, agree as to the manner in which these 

 insects are generated, nor how life is communicated to 

 them; for they say that not only does the Earth possess 

 this occult power, but that it is possessed by all animals 

 living and dead, also by all things produced from the 



