[ >4 8 I 
CHAP. XV. 
Of the Generation of Animals and 
Vegetables, ** 
"T^^uivocal or fpantaneous Generation , that is, 
a Production of Plants without Seeds, 
and of living Creatures without any other 
Parents but Accident and Putrefa&ion, how¬ 
ever abfurd it may feem to us, was an Opi¬ 
nion that prevailed almoft univerfally ; till 
Microfcopes overturned it, by demonflrating 
that all Plants have their Seeds, and all Ani¬ 
mals their Eggs: whence other Plants and 
Other Animals, exactly of the fame Species, 
are perpetually and unalterably produced. 
Nothing feems now more contrary to 
Reafon, than that Chance and Najlinefs 
fhould give a Being to Uniformity, Regu¬ 
larity, and Beauty : that two fuch unlikely 
Principles fhould produce, in different Places, 
Millions of Vegetables of the fame Kinds, 
and alike exactly, even in the mod minute 
Particularities: or, what is yet more amazing, 
that dead corrupting Matter , and blind un¬ 
certain Chance , fhould create living Animals, 
fabricate a Brain, conftitute Nerves iffuing 
from it, compofe a Contrail: of Mufcles, fur- 
nifh out Eyes, Lungs, a Heart, a Stomach, 
Bowels, and all other Parts ufeful to fuch 
Creatures $ and that too not after an aukward, 
flovenly^ 
