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

CAP. VII. Touching the Matter of Fact it self, whether de facto there hath been any such Origination of Mankind, or of any perfect Animal; either Natural or Casual.

THis I propounded as a distinct Inquiry at the first, namely, Whe∣ther or how far forth we have any Evidence of Fact touching any such casual or natural production of perfect Animals, but especially of Man. But the truth is, that this is but an Appendix to the former Cha∣pter; for if there be any credible Instance of any such Production, all or any reasoning against the possibility thereof is but vain; for what hath been naturally or casually, may be again.

But on the other side, if in all the Successions of the Ages of the World there hath not been any Experience or credible Instance of any such Production; but contrarywise, since Mankind was first upon the Earth, both Mankind and all perfect Animals have had their being by natural Procreation and Generation, by conjunction of Sexes; it is a frenzy for any Man that pretends to Reason, to suppose a natural possi∣bility of that to be either from a casual or meer natural Cause; which never had any Instance of its being or existence in such a manner.

The World hath now upon the shortest Account lasted above 5600 Years, and within the compass of these Ages of the World there have been in many Nations, especially among the Egyptians and Grecians, Men of great Wisdom and Understanding, and singular Industry to search into the History of Nature, and many of them have had great opportunities to know very much therein: and since their times, especially the gene∣rality of the wiser and more inquisitive sort of Men being allarmed by the Writings of those that went before them, have made it their business to search yet farther, and the Learned in all Ages have left the Essays of their Learning, Reason and Observation to succeeding Ages, and if any Prodigy or considerable Production hath happened in their times, they have sent us the News of it: But never in all the Ages of the World since those 5600 Years hath there been any credible Relation either of the casual or natural production of a Horse or a Dog, much less of a Man or a Woman happening within the compass of that time, abating some Poetical Fictions and Fables that have no colour of any Authentick History or Authority: And therefore Scaliger well saith, Exercit. 193. Si bos aliquando ex putri ortus, cur post hominum memoriam ex ejusmodi pro∣creatione nullus extitit? and therefore Aristotle, the wisest Pagan Philo∣sopher that ever wrote, and the strictest observer and searcher into Nature, even upon the account of Experience and Reason tells us, Lib. 3. de Gen. Animal. cap. ult. that there never hath been, nor can be, according to the Rules of Nature, any such Production; though by way of Sup∣position that it some times had been, he gives us that Hypothesis of it that seemed to him most likely: And upon this very account, and partly because he was not acquainted with the Truths of God, or at least because he was not willing to acknowledge any other Original of things

but by Nature, he took up the Opinion of his Predecessor Ocellus, touching the Eternity of the World, and of Mankind in it, and so ab∣solved the difficulty of the Manner of the Origination of Mankind by denying it.

And therefore we have no reason to believe any such thing, since we find nothing in any Authentick History of any Man, or perfect Animal, since the first Being of Man upon the Earth hath been thus produced, abating the Fables of Poets touching the production of Men and Women out of Stones, by Deucalion and Pyrrha, cast over their heads; the Ser∣pents Teeth sowed by Cadmus, the production of Castor and Pollux out of an Egg, and those forlorn Fables of Beregardus; of the Green Man found in England in the Den of a Wolf 500 years since; the Blew and Red Men of Rabbi Elcha, that came out of the Mountains of Armenia: And there∣fore for want of any credible or particular Instances of any such pro∣duction, Caesalpinus supposeth, that they are in some unknown Moun∣tains between the Tropicks, where the Heat of the Sun is more constant, fervent, and equable, than in Climates remoter from the Equinoctial; though he neither doth, nor can give any Instance of such a production there or elsewhere. To excuse this unexperienced Notion, and the diffi∣culty of assigning any Instance thereof, they allude these ensuing Apo∣logies.

1. That these Productions cannot be but under some notable Con∣junction or Position of the Heavenly Bodies, which may be accommodate to such Productions; which Positions or Conjunctions not happening but after vast and distant Revolutions, the Experiment it self can rarely happen; and by length of time, before the like Revolution return, it is forgotten.

2. That those Productions could not be but in Matter excellently pre∣pared and fitted for this production, which could not be but after some great and long continuing Flood or Inundation, that might prepare and dispose the Matter for the Activity of that great Revolution, and if these should not meet together, or in some convenient nearness, the production of Mankind and perfect Animals would be frustrated.

3. That in as much as provident Nature hath had for many Ages, and yet hath a sufficient Seminium and stock, for the preservation of the Species of Men and perfect Animals raised by propagation and the mutual con∣junction of Sexes, Nature is not necessitated to have recourse to this extraordinary way of peopling and furnishing the World, and therefore it cannot be expected but after some vast devastation, that may endanger at least the extinguishing of the species of things.

To these things I say first in general, That if Men shall upon such a Method of Arguing go about to establish a Supposition, that neither they nor any else have ever known or experimented, and make a Conclusion of a thing as natural, upon such Suppositions as never any Man knew or heard, to produce such effects, Men may assume any thing to be natural, which yet hath not footsteps in Nature bearing any analogy to it. But to the particulars:

As to the first, it is unreasonable to make such a Supposition, for since it is not possible for any Man to know whether there be any such Influence of the Heavens to effect such productions, unless by Experience and

Observations of some Men, or some other way the notice thereof were given to Mankind, it being a Matter of Fact, that can no other way be known but by Experience or Revelation; and since the bare beholding of those Heavenly Bodies, being of that distance, can never without Observation of Events give us any natural estimate of their Effects, what they are, or may be; and since it must needs be granted, that such imagined Conjunctions, as may be effectual for such productions, are at vast unknown distances, and such as no Age before hath, or indeed can leave us any Memorial of; it must needs be a vain and precarious assumption, to attribute any natural Efficacy to any Conjunction what∣soever for such a production. The Ancient and Divine Historian Moses gives us indeed an account of the Origination of Man, and all other Animals, but not upon any natural causation or activity of the Heavens or Heavenly Bodies; but as he gives us the History of the Things, so he gives us the true Resolution of the Cause, not a natural but a supernatural Cause, namely, the Intention and Volition of the Great and Wise God; and to exclude any imagination of a natural or necessary Cause of these productions; doth not only tell us in express terms, that the production of them was by the Energy of the Divine Fiat, but also that the pro∣duction even of Vegetables themselves, that seem to have the greatest dependance upon Celestial Influences, was antecedent to the Constitution of those Heavenly Bodies. 1. As the Supposition of such a Natural Causality in the Heavens is meerly precarious, so it seems even to our Sense apparently false; for we see every year, without any other than an ordinary Conjunction by the Access of the Sun, Insects and Plants, sponte nascentia, do arise; and we know, that ordinarily in the compass or revolution of 800 or 1000 years, very great and considerable mutations happen in the Position and Conjunction of the Heavenly Bodies; and we know, that within the compass of Authentick History these Revolutions have happened above thrice, and since the latest Epocha of the Worlds Inception above five times; yet none of these great Revolutions have for any thing we ever knew or heard produced any one Horse, or Lion, or Wolf, much less any one Man, as a Terrigena. And therefore Expe∣rience (the best means to settle such an Hypothesis) doth not only not war∣rant it, but is evidently contrary to it, and denies it.

2. As to the second, the Mosaical History gives us an account of an Universal Deluge, about 4000 years since, which lay long upon the whole Earth; and the Grecian History gives us an account of two very great Floods, namely, the Ogygian and the Deucalian Floods; and every Year gives us an account of the Inundation of Nilus in Egypt, a most fruitful Continent, and near the Sun, whereby the Soil is made admirably fruit∣ful; and there is scarce any Age but some great portions of Land are laid dry, by the recess of some parts of the Ocean, which had lain covered for many thousands of years before with the sea. And as the universal Deluge was as great a preparation of the whole Earth, so these particular Inundations and Recesses of the Sea left particular Spots of Land as well prepared for such productions as can well be imagined; and yet in no Age have we any Instance of any such production, abating the Story of the Egyptian Mice which concrete after the recess of Nilus, which yet of most hands are agreed to be Insects, and sponte nascentia ex putredine. In∣deed

Beregardus tells us, ubi supra, out of Camerarius, that about Cayro, after the reflux of Nilus there are often seen divers Limbs or Parts of Mens Bodies; whether this be true or no, or if true, whether they are not only relicks of some Bodies swept away by the Inundations of Nilus out of their Graves or Sepultures, and torn asunder by the furious Ca∣taracts of Nilus, is not clearly evident: But be they what they will, or whether the Lusus naturae, yet they make nothing to this matter, unless Camerarius or some other had seen those divulsa membra come together, and configured into an humane Shape, and animated with a humane Life, which neither he nor any other have yet affirmed or pretended.

3. As to the Third, I say, 1. If by Nature they intend the great and glorious God, that most wise, intelligent, powerful Being, they do indeed in effect affirm what I have designed to prove, but do not make good their Supposition of such a Natural Cause as they declare in their Hypothesis, wherein they mean only that natural connexion and series of Causes whereby Natural Effects are naturally produced. And if they intend by Nature that unintelligent series or order of Natural Causes, or the blind and determinate Cause of Natural Productions; How comes that Nature to know when and where this necessity of Spontaneous Pro∣ductions doth happen, or in what proportion, measure, limits or place it is necessary to be done? Such a provisional care requires a knowing and perfectly intelligent Being, that operates ex cognitione, intentione, & voluntate; which is not to be affirmed of Agents purely natural, who do therefore act according to a Law of necessity and determination; non ex consilio & cognitione. 2. It is plain, that Insects and Vegetables sponta∣neously produced, are produced every Year, and their production is as natural as the access of the Sun and the constitution of the Earth: These are procured every Year, whether there be any need of them or not, and possibly sometimes in greater numbers than is convenient for this inferior World. And although it be true, that the Divine Power doth intend, or remit, or manage these Productions secundùm regimen & consilium vo∣luntatis, yet it is most evident these Productions are ordinary, animal, and natural, without choice or design in inanimate Nature: If therefore these Productions be natural and periodical every Year, why should there not be as well productions of Men or perfect Brutes, if it were purely natural, as well as Frogs and Flies; since the former may be of more use, especially in many desolate places, than always the latter? How many great and vast Islands and Continents are there, especially in Ar∣menia, which have no considerable number of Inhabitants, if any at all to people them? In Ireland there are great store of Wolves, and so there were anciently in England, till they were destroyed by the Industry of the Inhabitants: in Ireland their increase is by propagation, without any new production; in England they cannot increase by propagation, because here are none: How comes it to pass that Nature doth not pro∣duce new Wolves in England, as well as Frogs, Adders, Hornets and Wasps? If it be said, that Nature neglects it because they are noxious; as this is to make Nature an intelligent Agent, so it answers not the difficulty: For why doth she then not destroy the Species in Ireland upon the same account? But this is but a vanity: Nature as well intends the existence of a Wolf as of a Sheep, where the means of its production is

equal, though Mankind prefer the latter, as more useful to him. If any thing therefore of this deliberative nature be to be found in the voluntary and intentional Regiments of things of this kind, it is to be attributed to the great and supreme Rector of the World, who doth work ac∣cording to Counsel, Wisdom, and Will.

Upon the whole matter therefore I conclude, That as well by the reason of the thing, and upon true natural congruity, as also de facto and upon experimental Observations, Mankind, no nor the perfect Animals are not produced, nor producible by any meer natural Cause, as at this day, or in any Age or Time since their first Creation, otherwise than by a natural production; which is the Truth asserted by the Great Verulam, in his 9^th Century, in fine.

As for the Heathen Opinion, which was, That upon great Mutations of the World perfect Creatures were first ingendred of Concretion, as well as Frogs, Worms and Flies, and such like, we know it to be vain; but if any such thing should be admitted (discoursing according to Sense) it cannot be, except you admit a Chaos first, and a commixture of Heaven and Earth: for the Frame of the World once in order, cannot effect it by any Excess or Casualty.

And as thus neither Casualty nor bare Nature cannot originate Man∣kind or any perfect Animal ex putri, so much less can Art. The Chymists tell us, that by re-union of separate Principles of Vegetables they will in a Glass revive a Vegetable of the same species at least in figure and effigies; this hath been pretended, but I could never hear any Man speak it that saw it done.

But never was any so mad, except Paracelsus, that could ever pretend to make up a Sensible Being, much less the Humane Nature: Paracelsus vainly and falsly pretended to the raising of an Homunculus, but yet not without the help of those Naturales geniturae utriusque sexus; wherein notwith∣standing he lyed, as he did in many things else, which he never could effect notwithstanding his vain boasting of his Skill.

Upon the whole Matter therefore I conclude, That the Origination of Mankind, or of the inferior perfect Animals, neither was nor could be the Effect of Humane Art or Skill, as Paracelsus; nor of Chance or Ca∣sualty, as Epicurus; nor of Nature, as Cardanus, Caesalpinus, and some other Recreants in Religion and Philosophy: But it was the free, powerful, and wonderful Work of the God of Nature, who made all things by his Power and Wisdom; and having made them, lodged in them and for them that pre-ordained Law of their Creation and Existence, which we commonly call Nature: That Nature indeed is the Law or Rule insti∣tuted and implanted by the wise and glorious God in things when made; but in the first Effection of Mankind God Almighty, not Nature, was the Author. As in my Watch, the Law and Rule of its Motion is the Constitution and Position of its Parts by the Hand and Mind of the skilful Artist; but the Author or Efficient of my Watch is the Artist himself, and not that Motion that is as it were the Law or Rule of the Engin.