54 



for the smaller parts either mutually embraced, or 

 repelled one another; whence no tiling in reality 

 perished, " but every thing was in perpetual vicissi- 

 tude." Whence it follows, according to the system 

 of'Empedocles, as well as that of Anaxagoras, nothing 

 had either life or death properly so called, but that 

 the' essence of things consisted in that active principle, 

 whence they arose, and into which they all reduced 

 themselves at lasf. He had also, a sentiment respect- 

 ing generation, -which Mr. de Button hath followed, 

 expressing it in the very same terms ; where he says, 

 fc that the seminal juices of the two sexes contain all 

 the Mr. all parts analogous to the body of an animal, 

 and lU'cessary to its production.' 



5. Plotinus, following the idea of Empedocles, and 

 investing the reason of this sympathy in nature, dis- 

 covered it topi oc ed from such A harmony and assi. 

 rniUitum of t*e parrs,, as bound them together Vr>en 

 they mm, or rt-pt'lifii them whtn they WITH dbsiwilarj 

 lie r>a\ s. th-'it t is (he variety of these assimilations 

 that concur to the formation of an animal ; and calls 

 that binding or dissolving force, the magic of the unu 

 verse : and his able interpreter, Marsilius Ficinus, 

 explaining the sense of that passage, says, that the dif. 

 ferent parts of every animal, have an attractive virtue 

 in them, by means of which they assimilate such parts' 

 of the aliment as best agree with them, 



6. I come now to the system of Mr. de Buffon, 

 Be thinks with Anaxagoras, that there is in nature a 

 common matter to animals and vegetables, which 

 serves for the nutrition and expansion of all that 

 lives or vegetates , and with PJotinus, that this matter 

 contributes to their nutrition and expansion, in being 

 assimilated to each part of an animal or vegetative 

 body, and entering into their inmost pores. This nu- 

 tritive and productive matter, is universally spread 

 through all, and^ composed of organic particles, ever 

 activej tending towards organization, and of them* 



