So EXAMINATION OF 



which was a refult of his fyftem of philofophy, 

 where form and matter are the great principles, 

 where vegetable and fenfitive fouls are the a- 

 gents of Nature, and where final caufes are real 

 objedts, fhould have been received in the fchools : 

 But it is not a little aftoniihing to fee a phyfi- 

 cian and an acute obferver, like Harvey, carried 

 down the ftream, while, at the fame time, moft 

 philofophers followed the fentiments of Hippo- 

 crates and Galen, of which we fhall afterwards 

 take notice. 



We mean not to convey a difadvantageous 

 idea of Ariftotle by the account we have given 

 of his theory of generation. We might with 

 equal propriety judge of Defcartes by his trea- 

 tife on man. What thefe two philofophers 

 have remarked concerning the formation of the 

 foetus fhould rather be confidered in the light 

 of detached obfervations, or as confequences 

 which each of them drew from their principles 

 of philofophy, than as complete fyftems. Arif- 

 totle admits, with Plato, final and efficient caufes : 

 Tiie latter are the fenfitive and vegetable fouls, 

 that give form to matter, which, inirfelf, is only 

 a capacity of receiving forms: And as, in ge- 

 neration, the female furnifhes the greatell quan- 

 tity of matter, and as it was repugnant to his 

 fyftem of final caufes, that any effed fhould be 

 produced by two caufes, when one was fufficient 

 for the purpofe, he concludes, that the woman 

 alone contains the matter necelfary for procrea- 

 tion : 



