GENERATION OF ANIMALS, I. xxi. 



These then are the Unes upon which that subject XXI 

 should be treated. And what we have said indicates generation. 

 plainly at the same time how we are to answer the 

 questions which we next have to conside?;, viz., how 

 it is that the male makes its contribution to genera- 

 tion, and how the semen produced by the male is the 

 cause of the offspring ; that is to say. Is the semen 

 inside the offspring to start with, from the outset a 

 part of the body which is formed, and minghng \vith 

 the material pro\ided by the female ; or does the 

 physical part of the semen have no share nor lot in the 

 business, only the dynamis and movement contained 

 in it ? " This, any^vay, is the active and efficient 

 ingredient ; whereas the ingredient which gets set 

 and given shape is the remnant " of the residue in the 

 female animal. The second suggestion is clearly the 

 right one, as is shown both by reasoning and by 

 observed fact, (a) If we consider the matter on 

 general grounds, we see that when some one thing 

 is formed from the conjunction of an active partner 

 \\ith a passive one, the active partner is not situated 

 ^v'ithin the thing which is being formed ; and we may 

 generalize this still further by substituting " mov- 

 ing " and " moved " for " active " and " passive." 

 Now of course the female, qua female,*^ is passive, and 

 the male, qua male, is active — it is that Avhence the 

 principle of movement comes. Taking, then, the 

 widest formulation of each of these two opposites, 

 viz., regarding the male qua active and causing move- 

 ment, and the female qua passive and being set in 

 movement, we see that the one thing which is formed 

 is formed /Vom them onlv in the sense in which a bed- 

 stead is formed from the carpenter and the wood, or 

 a ball from the wax and the form. It is plain, then, 



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