that which has right and empire in them, and to which all created things are made subservient. Or we should else have to own that in the works of nature there was neither prudence, nor art, nor understanding; but that these appeared to us, who are wont to judge of the divine things of nature after our own poor arts and faculties, or to contrast them with examples due to ourselves ; as if the active principles of nature produced their effects in the same way as AVC are used to produce our artificial works, by counsel, to wit, or discipline acquired through the mind or understanding.
But nature, the principle of motion and rest in all things in which it inheres, and the vegetative soul, the prime efficient cause of all generation, move by no acquired faculty which might be designated by the title of skill or foresight, as in our undertakings ; but operate in conformity with determinate laws like fate or special commandments in the same way and manner as light things rise and heavy things descend. The vegetative faculty of parents, to wit, engenders in the same way, and the semen finally arrives at the form of the foetus, as the spider weaves her web, as birds build nests, incubate their eggs, and cherish their young, or as bees and ants construct dwellings, and lay up stores for their future wants ; all of which is done naturally and from a connate genius or disposition ; by no means from forecast, instruction, or reason. That which in us is the principle or cause of artificial operations, and is called art, intellect, or foresight, in the natural operations of the lower animals is nature, which is auToSicWroc, self-taught, instilled by no one ; what in them is innate or connate, is with us acquired. On this account it is, that they who refer all to art and artifice are to be held indifferent judges of nature or natural things ; and, indeed, it is wiser to act in the opposite way, and selecting standards in nature to judge of things made by art according to them. For all the arts are but imitations of nature in one way or another; as our reason or understanding is a derivative from the Divine intelligence, manifested in his works; and when perfected by habit, like another adventitious and ac- quired soul, gaining some semblance of the Supreme and Divine agent, it produces somewhat similar effects.
Wherefore, according to my opinion, he takes the right and pious view of the matter, who derives all generation from the
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