_MADAM,_
Your _Author_ mentioning in his Works, several Seeds of several
Creatures, makes me express my opinion thus in short concerning this
Subject: Several Seeds seem to me no otherwise then several Humours, or
several Elements, or several other Creatures made of one and the same
Matter, that produce one thing out of another, and the barrenness of
seeds proceeds either from the irregularity of their natural motions,
or from their unaptness or unactivity of producing. But it is to be
observed, _Madam_, that not every thing doth produce always its like,
but one and the same thing, or one and the same Creature, hath many
various and different productions; for sometimes Vegetables do produce
Animals, Animals produce Minerals, Minerals produce Elements, and
Elements again Minerals, and so forth: for proof I will bring but a
mean and common example. Do not Animals produce Stones, some in one,
and some in another part of their bodies, as some in the Heart, some in
the Stomack, some in the Head, some in the Gall, some in the Kidnies,
and some in the Bladder? I do not say, that this Generation of Stone
is made the same way as the natural generation of Animals, as, for
example, Man is born of his Parents; but I speak of the generation or
production of Creatures in general, for otherwise all Creatures would
be alike, if all generations were after one and the same manner and
way. Likewise do not Fruits, Roots, Flowers and Herbs, produce Worms?
And do not Stones produce Fire? witness the Flint. And doth not Earth
produce Metal? 'Tis true, some talk of the seed of Metals, but who with
all his diligent observations could find it out as yet? Wherefore it
is, in my opinion, not probable, that Minerals are produced by way of
seeds. Neither can I perceive that any of the Elements is produced by
seed, unless Fire, which seems, to my sense and reason, to encrease
numerously by its seed, but not any other of the Elements. And thus
productions are almost as various as Creatures, or rather parts of
Creatures, are; for we see how many productions there are in one animal
body, as the production of flesh, bones, marrow, brains, gristles,
veines, sinews, blood, and the like, and all this comes from Food,
and Food from some other Creatures, but all have their original from
the onely matter, and the various motions of Nature. And thus, in my
opinion, all things are made easily, and not by such constrained ways
as your _Author_ describes, by Gas, Blas, Ideas, and the like; for I
am confident, Nature has more various ways of producing natural things
then any Creature is able to conceive. I'le give another example of
Vegetables, I pray you but to consider, _Madam_, how many several ways
Vegetables are produced, as some by seeds, some by slips, some by
grafts, &c. The graft infuses and commixes with the whole stock and
the branches, and these do the like with the graft: As for example;
an Apple grafted in Colewort produces Apples; but those Apples will
have a taste and sent of the Colewort, which shews that several parts
of several Creatures mix, joyn, and act together; and as for seeds,
they are transchanged wholly, and every part thereof into the produced
fruit, and every part of the seed makes a several production by the
help of the co-working parts of the Earth, which is the reason that so
many seeds are produced from one single seed; But Producers, that waste
not themselves in productions, do not produce so numerously as those
that do dissolve; yet all Creatures increase more or less, according
to their supplies or assistances; for seeds will encrease and multiply
more in manured and fertile then in barren grounds; nay, if the ground
be very barren, no production at all will be; which shews, that
productions come not barely from the seed, but require of necessity
some assistance, and therefore neither Archeus, nor seminal Ideas, nor
Gas, nor Blas, would do any good in Vegetables, if the ground did not
assist them in their generations or productions, no more then a house
would be built without the assistance of labourers or workmen; for let
the materials lie never so long, surely they will never joyn together
of themselves to the artificial structure of an house. Wherefore since
there is so much variety in the production of one kind of Creatures,
nay of every particular in every kind, what needs Man to trouble
his brain for the manner and way to describe circumstantially every
particular production of every Creature by seminal or printing Ideas,
or any other far-fetched termes, since it is impossible to be done?
And as for those Creatures whose producers are of two different sorts,
as a Mule bred of an Asse and a Horse, and another Creature bred of a
Cony and a Dormouse; all which your _Author_ thinks[1] do take more
after their mother then their father, more after the breeder then the
begetter; I will not eagerly affirm the contrary, although it seems
to me more probable: But this I can say, that I have observed by
experience, that Faunes and Foales have taken more after the Male then
after the Female; for amongst many several colour'd Deer, I have seen
but one milk white Doe; and she never brought forth a white Faun, when
as I have seen a white Buck beget white and speckled Faunes of black
and several coloured Does. Also in Foals I have observed, that they
have taken more after the Male then after the Female, both in shape and
colour. And thus I express no more, but what I have observed my self,
others may find out more examples; these are sufficient for me; so I
leave them, and rest,
Madam,
_Your faithful Friend_
_and Servant._
[1] In the _Ch._ the Position is demonstrated; and in the _ch._ called
the Authority of the _Duumvirate_.