4 o8 GENERATION. SECT. XXXIX. 6. 2. 



company thofe fecretions. And that the pleafurable fenfations 

 arifing from thefe fecretions may conftitute the unnamed pleaf- 

 ure of exiftence, which is contrary to what is meant by taediuru 

 vifae, or ennui ; and by which we fometimes feel ourfelves hap- 

 py, without being able to afcribe it to any mental caufe, as af- 

 ter an agreeable meal, or in the beginning of intoxication 



Now it would appear that no fecretion or excretion of fluid 

 is attended with fo much agreeable fenfation, as that of the 

 femen ; and it would thence follow, that the glands which per- 

 form this fecretion, are more likely to be much affected by their 

 catenations with pleafurable fenfations. This circumftance is 

 certain, that much more of this fluid is produced in a given 

 time, when the object of its exclufion is agreeable to the mind. 

 2. A forcible argument, which {hews the neceflity of pleafura- 

 ble fenfation to copulation, is, that the aft cannot be performed 

 without it ; it is eafily interrupted by the pain of fear or bafh- 

 fulnefs ; and no efforts of volition or of irritation can effect 

 this procefs, except fuch as induce pleafurable ideas or fenfa- 

 tions. See Sed. XXXIII. r. i. ' 



A curious analogical circumftance attending hermaphrodite 

 infects, as fnails and worms, dill further illuftrates this theory j 

 if the fnail or worm could have impregnated itfelf, there might 

 have been a faving of a large male apparatus ; but as this is 

 not fo ordered by nature, but each fnail and worm reciprocally 

 receives and gives impregnation, it appears, that a pleafurable 

 excitation feems alfo to have been required. 



This wonderful circumttance of many infects being her- 

 maphrodites, and at the fame time not having power to im- 

 pregnate themfelves, is attended to by Dr. Lifter, in his Exer- 

 citationes Anatom. de Limacibus, p. 145 ; who, amongft many 

 other final caufes, which he adduces to account for it, adds, ut 

 tarn triftibus et frigidis animalibus majori cum voluptate perfi- 

 ciatur venus. 



There is> however, another final caufe, to which this circum- 

 ftance may be imputed : it was obferved above, that vegetable 

 buds and bulbs, which are produced without a mother, are al- 

 ways exact refemblances of their parent ; as appears in grafting 

 fruit trees, and in the flower-buds of the dioeceous plants, 

 which are always of the fame fex on the fame tree ; hence 

 thofe hermaphrodite infects, if they could have produced young 

 without a mother, would not have been capable of that change 

 or improvement, which is feen in all other animals, and in thofe 

 vegetables, which are procreated bv the male embryon received 

 and rtourifhed by the female. And it is hence probable, that 

 if vegetables could only have been produced by buds and bulbs, 



and 



