282 ON GENERATION. 



most satisfactorily, what remains for us contemplating such great 

 and important processes but that we exclaim with the poet : l 



Tis innate soul sustains ; and mind infused 

 Through every part, that actuates the mass. 



And although the rudiments of eggs, which we have said are 

 mere specks, and have compared to millet seeds in size, are 

 connected with the ovary by means of veins and arteries, in the 

 same manner as seeds are attached to plants, and consequently 

 seem to be part and parcel of the fowl, and to live and be 

 nourished after the manner of her other parts, it is nevertheless 

 manifest, that seeds once separated from the plants which have 

 produced them, are no longer regarded as parts of these, but 

 like children come of age and freed from leading-strings, they 

 are maintained and governed by their own inherent capacities. 



But of this matter we shall speak more fully, when we come 

 to treat of the soul or living principle of the embryo in general, 

 and of the excellence and divine nature of the vegetative soul 

 from a survey of its operations, all of which are carried on with 

 such foresight, art, and divine intelligence ; which, indeed, sur- 

 pass our powers of understanding not less than Deity surpasses 

 man, and are allowed, by common consent, to be so wonderful 

 that their ineffable lustre is in no way to be penetrated by the 

 dull edge of our apprehension. 



What shall we say of the animalcules which are engendered 

 in our bodies, and which no one doubts are ruled and made to 

 vegetate by a peculiar vital principle (anima) ? of this kind are 

 lumbrici, ascarides, lice, nits, syrones, acari, &c. ; or what of 

 the worms which are produced from plants and their fruits, as 

 from gall-nuts, the dog-rose, and various others ? " For in 

 almost all dry things growing moist, or moist things becoming 

 dry, an animal may be engendered." 2 It certainly cannot be 

 that the living principles of the animals which arise in gall-nuts 

 existed in the oak, although these animals live attached to the 

 oak, and derive their sustenance from its juices. In like manner 

 it is credible that the rudiments of eggs exist in the ovarian 

 cluster by their proper vital principle, not by that of the mother, 

 although they are connected with her body by means of arteries 



1 jEneid. vi. z Arist. Hist. Anim. lib. v, cap. 32. 



