ON 



PARTHENOGENESIS, 



THERE is a natural and irrepressible tendency in the hu- 

 man mind to penetrate the mystery of the beginning of 

 things, and above all that of the origin of living things, 

 involving our own origin. 



But it is plainly denied to finite understandings to as- 

 cend to the very beginning, and to comprehend the nature 

 of the operation of the First Cause of anything. 



And perhaps the best argument from reason for a future 

 state and the continued existence of our thinking part, is 

 afforded by the fact of our being able to conceive the pos- 

 sibility of the enjoyment of such knowledge, and the con- 

 sequent yearning to possess it, that ^avrevfjua n of Plato, 

 or parturient vaticination of some higher knowledge which 

 cannot be fulfilled in the present state of our existence. 



The ablest endeavours here to penetrate to the beginning 

 of things do but carry us, when most successful, a few 

 steps nearer that beginning, and then leave us on the verge 

 of a boundless ocean of the unknown truth, dividing the 

 secondary or subordinate phenomena in the chain of cau- 

 sation from the great First Cause. 



The brief record of creation in the Sacred volume leaves 

 us to infer that certain plastic and spermatic qualities of 



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