I.

BOOK Omnipotens Creator in operibus suis aut manifestius conspicitur, aut præsentius ejus Numen adest. And he could find no satisfaction in any hypotheses of the greatest naturalists, without taking in the immediate power and providence of God. Quapropter rem recte pieque (mea quidem sententia) reputaverit, qui rerum omnium generationes ab eodem illo æterno atque omnipotente Numine deduxerit, à cujus nutu rerum ipsarum universitas dependet. Quod ubique præsens, singulis rerum naturalium operibus non minus adsit, quam toti universo, quod Numine suo sive Providentia, arte ac mente divina, cuncta animalia procreet. And even Mr. Hobbes himself, who was as unwilling to call in the help of Providence as another, yet is forced to give up the cause in this matter; and freely confesses, That if men examine the several machines in order to generation and nutrition, and think they were not ordered by an intelligent Being to their several offices, they must be said to be without understanding themselves. Qui si machinas omnes tum generationis tum nutritionis satis perspexerint, nec tamen eas a mente aliqua conditas ordinatasque ad sua quasque officia viderint, ipsi profecto sine mente esse censendi sunt. And yet he sets down the words of Diodorus Siculus in the beginning of that chapter; and thinks that is as far as men can go by philosophy, without revelation. How can these things consist? For men without revelation may find out all the machines in the body, and therefore may be convinced that there was an Eternal Mind, which gave a being to these things; which is more than Diodorus Siculus or his philosophers could find. For they affirmed, that animals were formed by chance, out of mud and putrefaction, without any mind; and therefore, according to him, they had none themselves. And some

Hobb. de

Homine,

1. i. c. I.

ad fin.

I.

of our most experienced and skilful anatomists, after all CHAP. their debates about the several mechanical hypotheses concerning the production of animals, have concluded that it is impossible that mere matter and motion, of whatsoever figure the particles of matter be, should make up the body of an animal; but that we must have recourse to a most wise and omnipotent Agent, which alone is able to do it. Interea ratum maneat Exercit. juxta normam optima philosophic fieri non posse, ut et Medica particulæ sive corpuscula quomodocunque figurata figurata Hardeci, solo motu fortuito in corpus humanum aut belluinum P. 126. sponte coalescant: sed necessario ad hoc opus omnino sapientissimum potentissimumque Architectam requiri, qui animalium machinas tam affabre et artificiose componat. Adeoque Deum solum formare cuncta animalia, et foecunditatem ovis addere.

Anatomicæ

Peieri et

Instit. Me

And those who plead most for the motion of the Etmulleri particles of matter in forming the body, yet confess, dica, c. 23. that it is hardly possible to conceive how the kinds of animals can be preserved, unless there be something beyond that, to regulate and determine that motion; but what that is, they are not able to explain. Let now any persons that have the use of understanding, consider whether this Egyptian hypothesis have the least credibility in it, since it is grounded on so little authority.

But that is not all: for we shall prove it to be repugnant to the most certain accounts we have of the nature, as well as the production of animals; both which are impossible to be conceived to be the mere result of a fortuitous motion of matter, by the heat of the sun upon the slime of the earth. As will appear by considering the most necessary and vital parts of animals themselves, and what relates to the several kinds, and the preservation of them: for the Egyptians argued from their mice to all other animals. The most

II.

BOOK necessary and vital parts of animals are such as the I. course of the blood and respiration depend upon;

without which it is impossible for them to live. The course of the blood supposes the heart, as the great machine in the body; and the several arteries are as so many vessels to convey the blood into the several parts. But here is so much wisdom and contrivance in this, that unless the heart had been framed in such a manner, and the blood put into such a motion as it is, the preservation of life had been impossible. And life itself is something beyond the mere coalition of the particles of matter: for if that were sufficient, then there must be life in all parts of matter united together, (but neither stones nor plants are animals ;) and they become animals by that which makes the difference between them and inanimated things; which are the constant course of the blood, and the distribution of nourishment to the several parts of the body in order to their support; and when these are at an end, the life of an animal is gone. Now, in order to this course of the blood, the heart hath its peculiar and wonderful frame and motion; for therein is the chief seat of that which is called the flame of life; which is nothing else but that brisk and vigorous motion of the blood, which actuates and enlivens the whole body. But both the natural heat and motion of the blood are unaccountable Ent. Apolo- in the mechanical way. Unde autem aliter calor hic perennis enascatur, haud facile dixerim, siquidem ad fermentationis operam recurrere inane auxilium est, quoniam ipsamet sine calore nihil egerit. To say the natural heat is caused by fermentation, can give no manner of satisfaction; for from whence comes this fermentation, but from heat? And so heat must be supposed in order to the producing heat; and there can be no end in such kind of suppositions. And if the particles

I.

did of themselves give it, then it must be discerned as CHAP. much at first as afterwards: but the contrary is observed in animals; for the blood is more fixed at first, and its heat rises by degrees, as the parts are forming. If it be said, There is a spiritus genitalis, which causes all that heat and motion; I ask, whence that arises. Not from mere matter and motion. But it must be something of a higher nature, and from a superior cause. But if heat and mud can produce animals, there is no need of any such spiritus genitalis in nature; but all must arise from mere motion, and the continuation of animals might as well have been without any distinction of sexes. But how came matter of itself to form such a distinction, with parts suitable to such a design? How come the instincts of nature in animals to be so violent to such an end, when, if there be nothing but matter, there can be no such end designed? How come some animals (as mules) not capable of propagating their kind, when, upon anatomical searches, no kind of defect hath been found in them, as some imagined? How come the species of animals to be so determined and limited, that in the revolution of so many ages no new species have appeared, although they are so different in some countries from others? How comes the number of some animals so very much to exceed others? i. e. How come the beasts of prey to fall so much short of the most tractable and useful animals to mankind, as sheep and oxen? And those are observed to be most fruitful, which afford the best food for them. Can we suppose the heat of the sun Cicer. de and slime of the earth should regard so much the 1. i. benefit of mankind? How comes the difference of animals as to the manner of their production? i. e. How come some to hatch their young ones within their own bodies, and others to bring forth eggs, and so to bring

Nat. Deor.

I.

BOOK them to maturity by incubation? And how comes this difference to have always continued without alteration? Whence comes that difference in animals, that some do ruminate, and others do not? Did mud, quickened by the sun, design to supply the want of teeth for mastication, by those several ventricles, and the muscles belonging to them? How come some animals to have their senses more exquisite than others, according to the nature of their food; as sight in some, and smelling in others? How come birds and fishes so very much to exceed mankind in the frame of those nerves which serve for smelling? Whence comes that wonderful sagacity in some animals, to pursue others merely from the scent left upon the ground at some distance of time, and to distinguish it from all others of the same kind? Whence comes that wonderful care and tenderness of their young ones in the most cruel and fiercest animals? If heat and mud could produce the beasts themselves, yet what influence could they have upon their brood? How comes the change of the passage between the lungs and the heart, when a young animal is come into the open air, from what it had in the womb? What particles of matter close up the foramen ovale, and direct the passage of the blood another way? What makes the milk to come into the proper vessels of the breeding animal just at such a time, and to decay when there is no farther occasion for it? Whence came the wonderful contrivance of birds in making their nests, and feeding and preserving their Plin. N.H. young? Neque alia parte ingenia avium magis admi1. x. c. 33. randa sunt. What particles of matter disposed them to find out their proper food and physic? How come the seasons of bringing forth to be so settled, that there is a sufficient provision to support the young animals, when they come into the world, by the milk ready pre

ed. Par.