60 



8. Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle, held a sentu 

 ment respecting generation, to which that of Mr. 

 Needham's evidently refers : this author says, that 

 the first source of vegetation, or its primitive bud, is 

 formed all at once, and specifically determined : that 

 it is the first thing in motion, that it commences vege- 

 tation, and that afterwards heat concurs to assist its 

 expansive force. Now is it not this which the ancient 

 philosophers meant, when they said, that the seminal 

 force was incorporeal, and acted upon bodies as much 

 as spirit did ? And Democritus and Strabo have ex. 

 plained themselves hereupon with still more dignity > 

 when they call its energy spiritual, and convertive of 

 todies into itself* 



