Part III. 
2 53 
PART III. 
Of Minerals. 
Sect. I. 
Of STONES. 
GHAP. I. 
Of ANIMAL BODIES PET RIFT'D; 
and fucb lt\e. 
I T hath been much difputed, and is not yet refolv’d, of 
many fubterraneal Bodies, which have the femblance 
of Animals , or Parts of them, Whether they were ever 
fuch, or no. And I am not ignorant of the Arguments 
offer’d on both hands. If I may fpeak my own fenfe a 
little. Why not? Is there any thing repugnant in the 
matter ? Why not a petrify’d Shell, as well as wood ? Or 
is the place ? If Shells are found'under ground, far from 
Sea, or in Hills, unchanged 3 as we are fure they are 3 then 
why not petrify’d ? Or is the form, to which no Species 
of Shells doth anfwer ? The alfertion is precarious: no 
man can fay, how many are known to fome one or other 5 
much lefs, how many are not known: I have reafon to 
believe, that fcarce the one half of the under Species of 
Shells are known to this day. And fo for Artificials: if 
Coy ns are found, every day under ground, then why not 
fometimes alfo Pictures, and other Works, in time petri¬ 
fy’d? And although Nature doth often imitate her felfj 
yet to make her in any cafe to imitate Art, is unphilofo- 
phical and abfurd: for the one, a natural reafon may be 
given, not for the other. On 
