ON GENERATION. 273 



which conspire to one and the same action though diverse in 

 faculty and use; for some are principal instruments in the action; 

 some are indispensable to it, without them it could not take 

 place; some secure its better performance; and some, in fine, 

 are extant for the safety and preservation of everything else." 

 He also shows it to be an agent, when from Aristotle and Galen 

 he lays down the two actions of the egg, viz. : "the generation of 

 the chick, and the growth and nutrition of the pullet." At the 

 conclusion he expresses himself clearly in these words : " In the 

 works of nature we see conjunct and one, the artificer, the in- 

 strument, and the matter; the liver, for instance, is both the 

 agent and the instrument for the production of the blood; and 

 so every part of the body ; Aristotle, 1 therefore, said well that 

 the moving powers were not easily distinguished from the in- 

 struments. In artificial things, indeed, the artificer and the 

 instrument are distinct, as much so as the workman and his 

 hammer, the painter and his pencil. And the reason adduced 

 by Galen 2 is this : that in things made by art the artificer is 

 without the work; in natural things, again, the artificer is within 

 it, conjunct with the instruments, and pervading the whole 

 organization." 



To this I add these perspicuous words of Aristotle. 3 " Of 

 extant things some are consistent with nature, others with other 

 causes. Animals and their parts, and plants, and simple bodies, 

 as earth, fire, air, and water, consist with nature, and are allowed 

 universally to do so; but these bodies differ entirely from those 

 that do not consist with nature. For whatsoever consists with 

 nature is seen to have within itself a principle of motion and of 

 rest, now according to place, now according to increment and 

 decrement, and again according to change. A couch or litter, 

 a garment, and other things of the same description, however 

 designated, inasmuch as they are made by art, have no inherent 

 faculty of change; but inasmuch as they are made of [wood, or] 

 earth, or stone, [or of wool, silk, or linen,] or of mixtures of 

 these, they have such a faculty. As if nature were a certain 

 principle and cause wherefore that should move and be at rest 

 in which she inheres originally, independently, and not by acci- 

 dent. I say, particularly, not by accident, because it might 

 happen that one being a physician should himself be the cause 

 1 De Gener. Anira. lib. ii, cap. 4. 2 De form. feet. 3 Phys. lib. i, cap. 1. 



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