Part IL hi /^^^ G r e a t i o n. 325 



was requifite, there being in them fuch inextri* 

 cable Perfedtion! 



To what Proofs or Examples of fpontaneous 

 Generation may be brought from Infed:s bred in 

 the Fruits or Excrefcencies of Plants, I have al- 

 ready made anfwer in my fecond Particular, 

 which contains the Teftimonies of our beft mo- 

 detn Naturalifts concerning thefe Things. 



In my Denial of the fpontaneous Generation 

 of Plants, I am not fo confident and peremptory, 

 but yet there are the fame Objedions and Argu- 

 ments againft it as againft that of Animals, 'vix, 

 becaufe it would be a Produdion out of indif- 

 pos'd Matter, and confequently a Creation; or 

 if it be faid there is difpos'd Matter, prepared by 

 the Earth, or Sun, the Heat, or whatever other 

 Agent you can aflign \ I reply, this is to make a 

 thing ad beyond its Strength, that is, an inferior 

 Nature, which hath nothing of Life in it, to pre- 

 pare Matter for a fuperior, which hath fome de- 

 gree of Life, and for the Preparation of which it 

 hath no convenient Veffels or Inflruments ; if it 

 could do fo, what need of all that Apparatus of 

 Veffels, Preparation of Seed, and, as I alfo fup- 

 pofe, Diftindion of Mafculine and Feminine that 

 we fee in Plants ? I demand farther, whether any 

 of the Patrons of fpontaneous Generation in 

 Plants did ever fee any Herbs or Trees, except 

 thofe of the Grafs-Leav'd Tribe, come up with- 

 out two Seed-Leaves ? which if they never did or 



Y 3 could, 



