The primitive origination of mankind, considered and examined according to the light of nature written by the Honourable Sir Matthew Hale, Knight ...

CAP. VI. Supposing the Production of Insects were totally spontaneous, equivocal, and ex putrido, whether any Consequence be thence deducible for the like Production of perfect Animals, but especially of Men.

IT is true, that Insects, and those equivocal Generations, have an ad∣mirable perfection in their kind, not much unlike to those that we find in the more perfect Animals, and indeed they are so much the more admirable, because their little and almost imperceptible moles ren∣ders their distinction of Faculties and Organs the more curious and artificial.

They have their several Faculties, the Senses of Sight, Hearing, Touch and Taste; they have the digestive, egestive, and other parts of the Nutritive Faculty; and though their individual production may seem equivocal, and of no univocal Seed of the same kind, yet they have the Generative Faculty, and propagate their species as well as perfect Animals, and have therein distinction of Sexes, as appears by fre∣quent experience, notwithstanding the doubt or contrary Opinion of Aristotle; and although their Phantasie is more lubricous and sickle than perfect Animals, yet it is evident that they have a Phantasie, as appears by their Motions and little Operations; and as they have Phantasie so they have Memory, as appears by the Returns of Bees and Pismires to their homes from great distances: And as they have these Faculties of Life and Sensation, so they have Organs accom∣modate and admirably fittted to those several Faculties, namely, to Nu∣trition, Augmentation, Generation, Sense, Local Motion, Phantasie, Appetite, which are so far from being contemptible, in respect of the smallness and petiteness of these little Animals, that indeed in some respect they are the more admirable, as a small Watch is an evidence of greater skill and artifice than a greater, or as a small Picture drawn to the Life commends the skill of the Painter sometimes more than a great Draught. But yet for all this, we must not think that these little Animals are of an equal perfection with the greater and nobler: Caesar's Image drawn upon a Cherry-stone is a piece of great curiosity, but not of an equal perfection to his lively Statue in Brass, or that a Fly is of an equal per∣fection with an Eagle. Therefore I shall not fetch Arguments against the like spontaneous Productions of the greater Animals from any con∣temptible valuation of these smaller, and these little Models of sensible Life; for certainly they are curious and elaborate automata, in respect of their admirable minuteness and accuracy: But yet upon other Reasons it seems utterly inconsequential, that because these smaller Particles of sensible Nature may be thus spontaneously produced, therefore these greater Animals may be so; for it is apparent, that in things of an equality of perfection, there is by the Laws and fixed Rules of their several Natures several manners of their productions. If we should compare Vegetables among themselves, some will arise ex surculo as well as ex radice or ex semine, others will not; if we compare Sensible Natures among them∣selves,

that seem to have an equality of perfection, as some sorts of Brutes and Birds, it will be hard to say which have the perfecter Nature, yet the production of the latter are ex ovo, the former ex verme; the former oviparous, the latter viviparous in the ordinary course of their natural production; and as at this day the former is not producible ex Ovo, so the latter not producible without it. The several natures of things have distinguished them, as in their kinds, so in the manner of their production; and whatsoever the perfection of Insects sponte orientia may be, there is no Consequence to be drawn from the same to other more noble Animals.

But again, as there is no Consequence to be drawn from the one to the other, so there is in the very nature of the one kind and the other, and in the natural order of their production a great disparity and disproportion: so that in truth by the very Constitution and Frame of their Natures, the perfect Animals that we see only produced by the conjunction of Sexes and univocal Generation, cannot by any course or consistency in Nature (without the Supposition of Divine Power and Ordination) arise spontaneously: And that appears 1. In the disparity of the natural Productive Principle of the one and the other; 2. In the disparity of the natural Method of the perfecting of the one and the other; 3. In the disparity of the Natures of the Animals of the one kind and the other, having arrived to their complement and perfection.

First, touching the disparity of the natural Productive Principle of the one and the other; although it be admitted that Insects and spontaneè orta, do or may arise from a Semen or Principle that is not univocal or formal; yet it must needs be agreed that the Natural Principle of such their production must be some analogal Semen, or some Seminal Principle that is suitable to such a Production, otherwise quidlibet orietur ex quo∣libet; there must be something that must determin the Matter to be an apt Seminium for such a Production, or else the Matter must determin it self; either there must be some determinate Vital or Spiritual Principle that is determined in it self, and determins the Matter (which Paracelsus seems to hold, that Bodies were first Spirits; and Aristotle seems to inti∣mate, when he tells us, that Animarum omnia plena, and when the Matter is fitly prepared, there is an illapse of this Vital, Formative, Spirital Principle into it) or else the inherent qualities or dispositions of Matter it self must be of force to mould it self up into these Moleculae seminales, the Formative Principles of these sponte orta, (I speak in the Language of those that erroneously hold no higher Principles but such as are purely Natural.) But although such Seminal Particles as these may be suffi∣cient for the production of Insects, yet they are not naturally accommo∣dated for the perfection of the perfect Animals: For the Semen prolificum for the production of perfect Animals must receive its specifical con∣forming Principle, either by the Supernatural Power of Almighty God, or from the Specifical Nature of the Individuals of both Sexes; and if we could suppose an Anima vaga of the Sensible Nature, not confined to any Individual of the same nature, nothing could be a Matter fitly prepared for its reception but the Materia seminalis ex individuis elicita: neither is there any Matter, extra compositum animale, capable to advance it self to the nature of such a perfect Animal; for if either of these could

be done, we had as much reason daily to expect the like spontaneous pro∣ductions of Horses and Sheep, as we find of Frogs and Worms.

Again, the Vis conformatrix and Seminal Particles of Insects is most plainly in Insects not confined to the semina formalia utriusque sexus com∣mixta, for we see almost all their parts are seminal, and will by putre∣faction advance to the production of their kind: Their productive power is not so strictly and severely bound to the semen utriusque sexus: Many have told us by experience and observation, that the Excrements of Flies, without any mixtion, will produce immediately Flies; that the Resolution or Maceration of Frogs and Worms will reproduce Individuals of the same species, as Kercher, lib. 12. Mundi subterranei, tells us.

But there are no parts of perfect Animals that are productive of their species, but the same is confined by the Laws of their Nature to a semen formale ex utroque sexu decisum. It is true, that their parts corrupted, as their Blood, Flesh, or Veins, will produce Insects and living Crea∣tures of a different and baser kind than themselves, as Worms, Lice, Fleas, Flies, but they can never advance to the production of their own kind.

And the Reason is, because there is not possibly any transmission of that specifical vital formative Principle to any other part but the semen formale of the Individuals of that species, and that Vis formatrix activa vitalis & sensibilis must be communicated either by virtue of a partici∣pation of all the parts of the Producents, or by a kind of a specifical Idea, naturally produced by that Nature from whence it is derived, which evolves and expands it self being produced, or (which is more intelligible and probable than either of the former) by a participation of the vital and sensible Soul to the semen prolificum from the Producents, and there is no way of communication thereof in perfect Animals, but only to that natural and genuine Semen constituted, mixed, and ordered according to the Law of its Being; so that we cannot suppose any seminal Principle of perfect Animals, but this semen prolificum utriusque parentis, unless we shall gratis, and without either Reason or Example, wholly invert the natural order of things, and substitute a Semen contrary to the nature of the things that must be produced, or admit that which those great Assertors of Nature think below them to grant, and will rather suppose a thousand Absurdities than admit, namely, the Interposition of the Divine Power.

And 2. As the Semen formativum of perfect Animals is greatly differing from that of Insects, and therefore not capable of a spontaneous pro∣duction as these, so it is apparent, that at least in animalibus viviparis it is impossible to be preserved, sine receptaculo naturae congruo, scilicet utero foemineo. The vital particles thereof are more fiery and volatile, and higher advanced than that Semen that is or may be sufficient for Insects, & sine convenienti receptaculo avolabunt spiritus vitales, & ex interventu vel minimi frigoris mortuum & infoecundum evadet; but the Semina of Insects are more viscous and less volatile, in so much that their Semina will remain all the Winter in caverns and holes, and yet be fruitful the next Spring.

3. Again, the Semen Insecti being so small a Particle, and having as I may say so small a portion of Soul in it, is soon formed and brought to maturity: We may learn this in their univocal productions, or ex coitu,

Scaliger tells us, Exercitat. 191. l. 2. that the Gloworm brings forth his Eggs postridiè post coitum; Malpighius in his curious Disquisition touching the Silkworm tells, that quarto post coitum die the Female brings forth ordinarily above 300, sometimes above 500 Eggs, and these will lie all the Winter, and with the warm heat of the Spring and some other assistance will prove vital, the next Spring; and Aristotle, Hist. Animal. l. 5. cap. 27. tells us, that Araneae statim post ova parta incubant, & triduo peragunt, & quatuor septenis diebus justa accipiunt incrementa; & ibid. l. 6. cap. 37. tells us, that Mures si salem lambunt pariunt sine coitu, and that even their young have been found with young before they saw the light. By all which it is evident, That although these little Moleculae seminales will retain their fecundity longer than the Eggs of Birds, even a whole Winter, and possibly longer; yet when they have obtained a convenient Matrix, and the warm cherishing heat of the Spring, the formation, pro∣duction, and maturation of Insects, and of that Semen prolificum which they univocally yield in their regular production is speedy and hasty; and consequently, that spontaneous Seed by which they may be produced, and the spontaneous production it self is soon dispatcht and perfected, a small portion and continuance of heat and time may perfect the whole process.

But it is otherwise in the perfect Animals, especially in those that are Vivipara, a long time is required for their formation and maturation, notwithstanding the great advantage of the place, and heat, and supplies of their formation and support, namely, the Uterus foemineus. Thus the same Aristotle, lib. 6. Histor. Animal. gives us an account, whereof some go above 18 Months, as the Elephant; some 10 Months, as Cows and Mares; some 5 Months, as Sheep and Goats; the least about 2 Months, as Dogs and Wolves: and this is one Reason that Aristotle, Problemat. ubi supra, gives, why these perfect Animals are not producible spontaneè, nor sine conjunctione maris & foeminae, vel sine utero foemineo. These Uteri terrestres fabled by Lucretius would never be warm or close enough for the production of those Animals who naturally are producible in utero foemineo, and the intervening Winter would soon make them abor∣tive, especially on either side of the Tropicks, where the heat and cold have their vicissitudes: And therefore it was providently, though ficti∣tiously supposed by Cisalpinus, that Ethiopia must be the only native Country for such spontaneous productions of the greater Animals and Men.

4. As the Earth was not a fit or competent Arvum genitale for vivi∣parous Animals, so the nourishment, increase, and support of these vivi∣parous Animals, dum in uteris morentur, according to the very exigence and formation of these Embryones, cannot consist with any such sponta∣neous Productions: for besides the soft and warm involucra of the Chorion and Amnios, we know the very fabrick of their nature hath given them a means and Instrument of Nutrition, per venam umbilicalem san∣guinem maternum attrahentem & dirigentem: This could never be supplied from any Terrestrial Veins, unless we should suppose that Succus mutritius of the Earth to become menstruous, and converted into Blood or other suitable consistence for the nourishment of the Embryo, or without any Reason or Experience warranting it, so suppose that some other way of nourishment should be in Embryonibus terrigenis.

5. Again, post partum viviparorum, praecipuè generis humani, it is evident that naturally the foetus is weak, unable to support it self without the supplemental helps; care and superintendence of their Dams or Parents: some are blind, as Whelps or Kitlins; some are destitute of those tegu∣ments that are necessary to defend them against the cold, as many kinds of Birds, that stand in need of the hovering of their Dams Wings for a considerable time after they are hatched, and are utterly unable to pro∣vide their own food, but are hourly supplied by their Dams, without which they must necessarily perish: and generally all viviparous Animals that are of univocal production are for a long time fed by their Dams Milk, without which, or some other artificial provision subministred to them by the help of others, they could not support themselves after their production; as young Horses, Dogs, Calves, Lambs: But this is much more conspicuous in Humane Infants, who from the time of their Birth for many Months can neither go nor stand, nor procure their own food, but stand in need of the care of others to keep them warm, provide them covering, and preserve them from being destroyed with their own Excrements. But on the other side, those small Animals which are supposed to be spontaneously produced, stand in need of no other means for their preservation, being produced, but that heat and circumjacent menstruum by or in which they are produced: and although these spon∣taneous productions, being produced, seem to propagate their Species by the coition of their Sexes, yet for the most part these generated In∣dividuals, Mice excepted, retain still that natural indoles to preserve themselves, without any other supervenient assistance than what was at first sufficient after their equivocal production; this we daily see in the Eggs of Silkworms, of all sorts of Flies, Caterpillers and Worms, which though in their secondary productions by Generation, yet being ripen'd to foetation by the heat of the Sun, they live upon Leaves and Grass, and take their food without the care or assistance of those Parents that produced them; and carry along with them the indication of that Method of Life which might be consistent with the condition of a spontaneous production, which is no way competible to the condition of greater Animals after their production.

6. Again, though the Faculties and Organs of a sensible as well as a vegetable Life appear in the smallest Insects, yet it is but a weak and imperfect Life of Sensation, and very little advanced above the Vege∣table Nature. And this appears by very many Instances, as namely, in their generation many Insects do seem to arise from Vegetables without any other production; and they seem to be little else but the Flos vege∣tabilis naturae, the more pure, active, lively Effluvia thereof; as the Flies that grow in the little Vesiculae of the Leaves of Elms and Currants, the Worms in the Galls of Oaks and the Burrs of Wild Rose, the Worms and Flies which grow in the husks of Burrs; yea many times the Parts of Vegetables divided from the Stock will turn into Animals, as the Seeds of Lavander kept a little warm and moist, will turn into Moths; the Plant called the Horse-tail laid into Water, will grow into an Insect. 2. This also appears, that as the several parts of Vegetables, the Leaves, the Branches as well as the formatum semen, are seminal, and productive of their Species; so many times the parts of Insects carry with them a

Seminal Nature effectual enough to produce their Species, as hath been asserted by the Experience of many; which no way happens in perfect Animals. 3. This also appears in the manner of their Life; for we often see in Insects divided each part keeps its motion, as the several parts of Vegetables keep their animation; a Fly or Wasp whose Head is cut off, yet the residue of his Body will live a considerable time; Flies that seem dead either with Water or Cold, and continue so for some considerable time, by the Heat of the Sun or warm Embers will revive and return to Life and Motion; as a Branch torn from a Tree, that hath been severed from it three or four days or more, will resume Life by re-implantation and the Solar Heat: And whereas the Eggs of a perfect Animal, as of Hens, Geese, &c. will lose their Animatick Faculties being frozen or con∣crete with Cold, or being kept two Months or thereabouts: the Seeds of Insects will continue fruitful a whole Winter or more, and possibly as long as the Seed of Corn, Oaks, or other Vegetables; as is apparent in the Eggs of Flies and Silkworms, which though excluded in the last Summer will remain fruitful, and produce the Insect this Spring, and possibly some time after; so that they are in the next degree above Vege∣tables, and have a nature very analogal to them. But these things are not so in greater Animals of an univocal generation; this also appears in the great disparity of these degrees at least of perfection in the perfect Animal, above that of Insects of a spontaneous production: For though, as before is said, these little Animals have Faculties conformable to the Sensitive Life, so that we may plainly discover, at least in many of them, the Faculties as well as the Organs of Sense, Phantasie, Memory, Common Sense, Appetite, Passion, Local Motion; yet the more perfect and uni∣vocal Animals have greater strength and perfection in these Faculties, their Phantasie and Memory more exact, their Appetite more perfect and free; if I may so call it, they are capable of Discipline, which these smaller Animals are not: There is greater variety, complication, and curiosity in the state, frame and order of their Faculties, and a greater distinction and variety of operation in them than in the smaller Pieces of Nature. There are more Wheels, more variety and curiosity in their motions, more variety of ingredients into the Constitution of the Automata of the more noble Animals, than in the Insects that are sponte orta: so that for the Constitution of their Souls (the Principle of their Faculties and Motions) there is required a more curious, elaborate, and elevated Composition and Fabrick than in these minute Animals. And hence it is, that though it be not only possible but frequent that these Insects and minute Animals may thus spontaneously arise, yet it hath never been known so according to the setled Laws and Order of Nature: It is impossible these greater and nobler Animals can arise spontaneously, nor otherwise naturally than by the mixture of both Sexes, and a Semen formatum and prolificum, received and united in utero foemineo, and im∣pregnated as it were with that Specifical Idea and Formative Power derived from the Parents, and those other accessions which may elaborate, rectifie, and advance the Soul and its Faculties, and the Body and its Organs to their due proportion and perfection. And therefore there is no parity Reason in the production of Insects and perfect Animals, nor any Con∣sequence to be drawn from the spontaneous production of one, to the

like production of the other in any natural course, without the inter∣vention of a Supernatural free Cause effecting the same besides and out of the road and course of Nature. And what may be said upon this account against the Consequence of the spontaneous production of other Animals from the spontaneous production of Insects, may with much more advantage be said against the Consequence of the production of Mankind by any natural spontaneous production; because the perfection of his nature, and the specifical excellence thereof, doth exceed the greatest excellence of other Animals far more than the noblest Animals exceed the Insects. And therefore as the spontaneous production of these Insects no way concludes the like production naturally possible in greater Animals, so if it were naturally possible, and de facto true that the greater Animals themselves were sponte producibilia & producta, it were not at all conclusive, nor deducible from thence that Mankind were producible naturally upon the like account. The nobleness of the structure of the Humane Body, the great curiosity and usefulness of most of his Organs, especially of his Tongue and Hand; the curious and useful configuration and disposition of his Nerves and Brain, the admi∣rable variety and quickness of his Phantasy, the great retentiveness of his Memory, but especially the admirable power of his Intellect, Reason and Will give him a far greater specifical perfection above the most per∣fect Brutal Nature, than that hath above the meanest Insects: And there∣fore certainly, according to the ordinary Observations in Nature, and the Rules and Methods observable therein, requires the noblest and most advanced Method to produce it that Nature can afford.

But against these Reasons it may be, and is urged, That all these Observations and Inferences are bottomed upon the state and course of Nature, wherein we see things are in the state of things already setled; but in the first production of things it might be otherwise, and must be otherwise, if we admit an Origination of Mankind ex non genitis. And though in the ordinary course of Nature, as now things are con∣stituted, the production of Mankind is ex semine formato ab utroque parente deciso, that his nourishment is per venam umbilicalem, that it cannot be otherwise now but in utero foemineo, that the state of Infancy now re∣quires those adventitious helps that are above remembred: Yet in the first state of Humane Production all these Suppositions must be laid aside, as unaccommodate to that state; another Seminal Principle, another method of Nutrition, another state and habit of the Foetus, must be and may be supposed in the first production of Mankind than now is to be found in the World, wherein the order of things is setled in a regular Method. If it should be supposed that a Mouse or a Rat were produced ex putri, we cannot suppose any such Semen, or Vena umbilicalis, or that it lived upon the Dams Milk; all which are notwithstanding supposable and necessary, when that equivocal Animal afterward propagates its kind.

I answer, That as it is true that Mankind and other Animals had an Original, and an Original in quite another way than now it is, and ex non genitis; so it is unquestionably true, that those Processes, Principles, and Methods which now serve in the production of Humane Nature or other perfect Animals, are no way conceptible, or applicable unto the

first production of Man or Animals. And therefore I must not only grant that these Modes of Production, Nutrition, &c. are utterly inef∣fectual and unapplicable to the first Origination of Humane Nature: But I must suppose quite contrary, that in truth it is impossible they should be the Modes or Order of that first Origination.

But it must be remembred whom it is that I am here contending against, namely, not against those that do, and that truly referr the Origination of Man to the Divine Power and Will, and a Supernatural production: but against them that are the great Venerators of established Nature, that think it below their Gravity and Wisdom to recognize any other Efficient but what they find in Natural Causes and Effects; nor any other Rule of things but what they see, that take their Measures of their Conceptions and Sentiments from what is obvious to Sense, and the common Observation of things as they now appear, and for the most part frame all their Conclusions accordingly. And therefore that which I herein contend for by these Arguments is this, That a Man that duly considers the natures of things, and makes the course of Nature and the Observation thereof to be the Rule and Guide of his Sentiments, though he be drawn by the necessity of Reason, to grant and conclude that Man must needs have an Origination, and that in another way than now he hath, namely ex non genitis; yet it is not reasonable for him to conclude that he had this Origination upon a bare natural account, as the Insects and sponte orta have, because it quite thwarts and crosses all the appearances of Nature, and is wholly incongruous to the nature of things as they now stand.

And a Man that makes such a Conclusion must needs offer violence to his own Reason and Experience, and depart from those Laws and Rules of Nature, which he makes his Guide, and the Compass by which he steers his Judgment touching things; and suppose that natural which is wholly different from what it seems: And consequently, if the reason and nature of things compel a Man to assert that Mankind had their Origination another way than that in which it now is, the same reason and nature of things duly and impartially considered, must needs evince that it had not its Origination from any either casual or meer natural course of things: But by the Power and Will of a most wise, intelligent, bountiful, free, and powerful Being; who according to his Wisdom and Goodness first gave being to Man, yea and all other things, secundùm intentionem & beneplacitum suae voluntatis. And since it is apparently necessary for any Man that will admit the first production of Mankind to be totally in another Method than now, and since they that will suppose a natural production of Man at first, must necessarily suppose a different production from that which now obtains: And since no more is asserted by those that suppose its Origination by the Will, Power, and Institution of Almighty God; this latter Supposition is much more reasonable and explicable than theirs that suppose the first Origination natural, yet totally different from what now it is, which is the great thing I intend in this long process touching the Origination of Man.