254 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



Such an origin for various kinds of animals was also 

 referred to by Diodorus Siculus and by Plutarch the 

 soil of Egypt, and the bed of the Nile in particular, 

 being more especially alluded to as the seat where such 

 marvels had been observed. Ovid, moreover, speaks of 

 bees originating in the putrefying flesh of a bull. 



These old and crude notions as to the possibility of 

 the new evolution of complex and highly organized 

 animals out of decaying organic, and even out of in- 

 organic materials, survived till far on into the middle 

 ages. The influence of the teachings of Aristotle was 

 still all-powerful in such subjects. What he had 

 affirmed, multitudes implicitly believed for many 

 centuries. 



The transition from the ancient to the modern 

 popular view, was initiated by that illustrious phy- 



' The rest of animals from teeming earth 

 Produc'd, in various forms receiv'd their birth. 

 The native moisture, in its close retreat 

 Digested by the sun's zetherial heat 

 As in a kindly womb, began to breed, 

 Then swell'd and quicken'd by the vital seed. 

 And some in less, and some in longer space, 

 Were ripen'd into form and took a several face. 

 Thus when the Nile from Pharian fields, is fled, 

 And seeks, with ebbing tides, his ancient bed, 

 The fat manure with heav'nly fire is warm'd: 

 And crusted creatures, as in wombs, are formed; 

 These, when they turn the glebe, the peasants find. 

 Some rude, and yet unfinished in their kind. 

 Short of their limbs, a lame imperfect birth; 

 One half alive, and one of lifeless earth.' 



