DIFFERENTSYSTEMS. 135 



ration than all the former dlfcoverles on this 

 fubjed:; becaufe the greateft difficulty in genera- 

 tion is to conceive how life isfirft produced, the 

 future expanfion and growth of the parts being 

 only accelfory operations; and, confequently, 

 that not a doubt remained of thefe animalcules 

 being deflined to become men, or perfed ani- 

 mals, according to their Ipecies. When the im- 

 probability was objeded to them, that millions 

 of animalcules, all equally capable of becoming 

 men, fhould be employed for this purpofe, while 

 only one of them was to enjoy the fmgular ad- 

 vantage of being admitted into the condition of 

 humanity ; when it was demanded of them, 

 why this ufelefs profufion of human germs was 

 employed? they replied. That it correfponded 

 with the ufual magnificence of Nature; that, ia 

 plants and trees, millions of feeds were produced, 

 while only a few of them fucceeded ; and that, 

 therefore, we ought not to be furprifed at the 

 prodigious number of fpermatic animals. When 

 the extreme minutencfs of a fpermatic worm, 

 compared with the body of a man, was mention- 

 ed to them as a difficulty, they anfwered, that 

 the feeds of trees, of the elm, for example, were 

 equally minute, when compared with the perfed: 

 individuals; and they added, with equal pro- 

 priety, metaphyfical arguments, by which they 

 proved, that largencfs and minutenefs were only 

 relations, and that the tranfition from fmall to 

 great, or from great to fmall, was performed by 



Niiture 



