Mijcellanea Curiofa. 1 4 5 



drencht with moifture, tho' they be there a&ual* 

 ly form'd. Another Confideration is from the 

 Analogy, which we may fuppofe between Plants 

 and Animals. All Vegetables we do fee proceed 

 ex Plantula, the Seeds of Vegetables being no- 

 thing elfe but little Plants of the fame kind 

 folded up in Coats and Membranes ; and from 

 hence we may probably conjecture, that fb cu- 

 rioufly an organized Creature as an Animal, is 

 not the fudden Product of a Fluid or Colliqua* 

 mentum, but does much rather proceed from an 

 Animalcle of the fame kind, and has all its lit- 

 tle Members folded up according to their feve- 

 ral Joints and Plicatures, which are afterwards 

 enlarged and diftended, as we fee in Plants. 

 Now tho 5 this Confideration alone may feem 

 not to bear much weight ; yet being join'd to 

 the two former, they do mutually < [Lengthen 

 each other. And indeed all the Laws of Mon 

 tion, which are as yet difcovered, can give bu+ 

 a very lame account of the forming of a Plant 

 or Animal. We fee how wretchedly Des Cartes 

 came off when he began to apply them to this 

 Subject ; they are formed by Laws yet unknown 

 to Mankind , and it feems moil: probable, that 

 the Stamina of all the Plants and Animals that 

 have been, or ever {hall be in the World, have 

 been form'd, ab Origine Mundi, by the Almighty 

 Creator within the firft of each refpe&ive kind. 

 And he who confiders the Nature of Villon, that 

 it does not give us the true magnitude, but the 

 proportion of things ; and that what feems to our 

 naked Eye but a Point, may truly be made up of 

 as many Parts as feem to us to be in the whole 

 vifible World, will not think this an abfurd or 

 iropofiible thing* 



L Bat 



