ON GENERATION. 369 



that which has right and empire in them, and to which all created 

 things are made subservient. Or we should else have to own 

 that in the works of nature there was neither prudence, nor art, 

 nor understanding; but that these appeared to us, who are 

 wont to judge of the divine things of nature after our own poor 

 arts and faculties, or to contrast them with examples due to 

 ourselves ; as if the active principles of nature produced their 

 effects in the same way as AVC are used to produce our artificial 

 works, by counsel, to wit, or discipline acquired through the 

 mind or understanding. 



But nature, the principle of motion and rest in all things in 

 which it inheres, and the vegetative soul, the prime efficient 

 cause of all generation, move by no acquired faculty which 

 might be designated by the title of skill or foresight, as in 

 our undertakings ; but operate in conformity with determinate 

 laws like fate or special commandments in the same way and 

 manner as light things rise and heavy things descend. The 

 vegetative faculty of parents, to wit, engenders in the same 

 way, and the semen finally arrives at the form of the foetus, as 

 the spider weaves her web, as birds build nests, incubate their 

 eggs, and cherish their young, or as bees and ants construct 

 dwellings, and lay up stores for their future wants ; all of which 

 is done naturally and from a connate genius or disposition ; by 

 no means from forecast, instruction, or reason. That which in 

 us is the principle or cause of artificial operations, and is called 

 art, intellect, or foresight, in the natural operations of the lower 

 animals is nature, which is auToSicWroc, self-taught, instilled 

 by no one ; what in them is innate or connate, is with us 

 acquired. On this account it is, that they who refer all to art 

 and artifice are to be held indifferent judges of nature or natural 

 things ; and, indeed, it is wiser to act in the opposite way, and 

 selecting standards in nature to judge of things made by art 

 according to them. For all the arts are but imitations of nature 

 in one way or another; as our reason or understanding is a 

 derivative from the Divine intelligence, manifested in his works; 

 and when perfected by habit, like another adventitious and ac- 

 quired soul, gaining some semblance of the Supreme and Divine 

 agent, it produces somewhat similar effects. 



Wherefore, according to my opinion, he takes the right and 

 pious view of the matter, who derives all generation from the 



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