ON GENERATION. 321 



small that if the top only, a very point, be lost, all hope of pro- 

 pagation is immediately destroyed ; in so small a particle does 

 all the plastic power of the future tree seem lodged ! The 

 provident ant by gnawing off this little particle stores safely in 

 her subterraneous hoard the grain and other seeds she gathers, 

 and ingeniously guards against their growing : " The cypress/' 

 adds Pliny, in the same place, "bears a seed that is greatly 

 sought after by the ant ; which makes us still further wonder, 

 that the birth of mighty trees should be consumed in the food 

 of so small an animal/' But on these points we shall say 

 more when we show that many animals, especially insects, arise 

 and are propagated from elements and seeds so small as to be 

 invisible, (like atoms flying in the air,) scattered and dispersed 

 here and there by the winds; and yet these animals are supposed 

 to have arisen spontaneously, or from decomposition, because 

 their ova are nowhere to be found. These considerations, how- 

 ever, may furnish arguments to that school of philosophy which 

 teaches that all things are produced from nothing ; and indeed 

 there is hardly any ascertainable proportion between the rudi- 

 ment and the full growth of any animal. 



Js T or should we so much wonder what it is in the cock that 

 preserves and governs so perfect and beautiful an animal, and 

 is the first cause of that entity which we call the soul ; but 

 much more, what it is in the egg, aye, in the germ of the egg, 

 of so great virtue as to produce such an animal, and raise him 

 to the very summit of excellence. Nor are we only to admire 

 the greatness of the artificer that aids in the production of so 

 noble a work, but chiefly the " contagion " of intercourse, an act 

 which is so momentary ! "What is it, for instance, that passes 

 from the male into the female, from the female into the egg, 

 from the egg into the chick ? What is this transitory thing, 

 which is neither to be found remaining, nor touching, nor con- 

 tained, as far as the senses inform us, and yet works with the 

 highest intelligence and foresight, beyond all art ; and which, 

 even after it has vanished, renders the egg prolific, not because 

 it now touches, but because it formerly did so, and that not 

 merely in the case of the perfect and completed egg, but of 

 the imperfect and commencing one when it was yet but a 

 speck ; aye, and makes the hen herself fruitful before she has 

 yet produced any germs of eggs, and this too so suddenly, as 



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