19 



and therefore even in that condition may be looked 

 upon as a little man. 



12. Hippocrates advanced, /c that nothing in nature 

 absolutely perished ; that nothing, taking it altogether.* 

 was produced anew ; nothing born but what had a 

 prior existence : that what we call birth, is only such 

 an enlargement as brings from darkness to light, or 

 renders visible those small animalcula which were be 

 fore imperceptible. 1 ' He says a little farther, a it is irn. 

 possible that what is not should be born, there being 

 nothing that can contribute to the generation of what 

 has no existence." But he maintains, u that every 

 thing increases as much as it can, from the lowest t& 

 the highest degree of magnitude." These principles he 

 afterwards applies to human generation. He says, 

 4; that the larger sizes arise out of the lesser; that all 

 the parts successively expand themselves, and. grow 

 and increase proportionally in the same series of time ; 

 that none of them in reality takes the start of another, 

 so as to be quicker or slower in their growth ; but that 

 those which are naturally larger SOOIKT appear to the 

 eye than those which are sir.alier, though tb^y by no 

 weans preceded them in existence." in short, in the 

 beginning of this book of Hippocrates, we meet with a 

 train of reasoning en ireJy j'ist aid solid, the natural 

 consequences of whicn i&, that at the bcgiinvng of the 

 'world the seeds containing the first lineaments of plants 

 and animals came into existence, though their extreme 

 minuteness hinders them trom being s :cn. Whence he 

 concludes, as we have already had occasion to observe, 

 that the birth of annuals is only such an enlargement 

 of them, as makes them pass from darkness into hghto 



13. It may be objected, that we have already reprc-* 

 sented Hippocrates and Aristotle as favouring the sys- 

 tem of generation by eggs; and that we now seem to 

 ascribe a contrary opinion to them. But it ought to 

 be remarked* that in reality these two philosophers 



