selves assuming a variety of forms, according to their 

 situations; so that with \naxa^oras ne thinks there 

 is no prp-'existent seed, involving infinite numbers of 

 the same kind, one with another ; b-it an ever active 

 organic matter, always ready so to adapt itself, as to 

 assimilate and rendei other things conformable to that 

 -wherein it resides : the species of animals and vege- 

 blcs can therefore never exhaust them>r!ves ; but as 

 long as an individual subsists, the -species will be r - 

 neMfd. It is as extensive now, as it was at the 

 b ginning, and all will subsist till thej are anmitilattd 

 by the Crtaror. It follows from these princrpl s, that 

 g< aeration and corruption are only a different assnci. 

 at'<n or disjunction of similar pirts, which alter the 

 dissolution of an animal or vegetable body, serve to 

 r-vjuodnce another of the species : provided, accord-* 

 ing to Mr. dc Buffon, that those small constituent 

 pans meet in a place proper for the expansion of 

 themselves, so as to enclose v\hat ought thvnce to re- 

 sult fur the generation of an am rial, or that they pass 

 through the interior mon.d (A aa anr-ial or vegetaoi -", 

 and assimilate themselves *o t re cliff T nt pans m inti- 

 mately adhering. to thrnvj and it is i this la i respect 

 only, that any difference subsist between ige opinions 

 of the ancients last mentioned,, and the theory of 

 Mr. de Button. He thinks, that the Similar nnU or- 

 ganic parts do not become specific, till after the} have 

 assimilated themselves to the different parts uf the 

 bodies, into whose composition they enter ; whereas 

 Anaxagoras believed them always specific, and did not 

 think that they had need to enter the inside ol the parts.; 

 in order to assijmlate. 



7. Another principle of Mr. de Buflfon, is that when 

 the nutritive matter abounds more than sufficient for 

 'the nourishment and expansion of an animal or v,-ge- 

 ta-ble body, it is remitted through all parts of the body, 

 into one or more reservoirs, inform of a liquor, which 

 is the semen of the two sexes, which mingiediogether, 

 contributes to the formation of a faetus, which becomes 

 J> 4 



