THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



7.^ ^ portion of 

 ^^^'"ig matter of 

 P^e-existing or. 



th. (J) Before its 

 th. 



a molecular nie- 



orphosisoftte 

 :ter of an entire 

 mism. 



the metaraor- 

 sis and fusion of 

 IV minute or- 



isms. 



irect. Cases of 

 ornate' or cycli- 

 generation'. 

 >ct. Continuoos 

 ^lopment into 

 likeness of its 



:nt. 



ins 



le 



d from one 



D 



the possi- 



•esent p 



hase 



\ 





253 



+ 



Aristotle believed in the ^spontaneous' origination 

 of eels and other fish out of the slimy mud of rivers 

 and marshes; also that certain insects took origin 

 from the vernal dew on plants; and that lice were 



spontaneously engendered in 



the flesh of animals. 



He believed also that animals might proceed from 

 vegetables— that the caterpillars of certain butterflies 

 for instance, were actually the products of the plants 

 upon which they feed. Some of these beliefs were 

 echoed by Lucretius 1 and Ovid more than two hundred 

 years later. When the latter of these poets had de- 

 scribed the means adopted by Deucalion and Pyrrha 

 for repeopling the world after the deluge — how the 

 backwardly-thrown stones, the bones of mother earth 



—he thus accounts for the 

 origin of all the lower living things: 



grew into human beings 



( 



Csetera diversis tellus animalia formis 

 Sponte sua peperit, postquam vetus humor ab igne 

 Percaluit Solis, coenumque udceque paludes 

 Intumuere sestu : fecundaque semina rerum 

 Vivaci niTtrita solo, ceu matris in alvo, 

 Creverunt, faciemque aliquam cepere morando. 

 Sic, ubi deseruit madidos septemfluus agros 

 Nilus, et antiquo sua flumina reddidit alveo, 

 ^thereoque recens exarsit sidere limus; 

 Plurima cultores versis animalia glebis 

 Inveniunt, et in his quaedam modo coepta per ipsum 

 Nascendi spatium, qu^dam imperfecta, suisque 

 Trunca vident numeris : et eodem corpore s^pe 

 Altera pars vivit, rudis est pars altera tellus ^Z 



I ( 



793. 



De Rerum Natura/ lib. v. 



^ This passage (Metamorph. bk. i. 416-429) has been thus translated 

 by Dryden :— 



its. 



