same eternal and omnipotent Deity, on whose nod the universe itself depends. Nor do I think that we are greatly to dispute about the name by which this first agent is to be called or worshipped ; whether it be God, Nature, or the Soul of the uni- verse, whatever the name employed, all still intend by it that which is the beginning and the end of all things ; which exists from eternity and is almighty ; which is author or crea- tor, and, by means of changing generations, the preserver and perpetuator of the fleeting things of mortal life ; which is om- nipresent, not less in the single and several operations of na- tural things, than in the infinite universe ; which, by his deity or providence, his art and mind divine, engenders all things, whether they arise spontaneously without any adequate efficient, or are the work of male and female associated together, or of a single sex, or of other intermediate instruments, here more nu- merous, there fewer, whether they be univocal, or are equivocally or accidentally produced : all natural bodies are both the work and the instruments of that Supreme Good, some of them being mere natural bodies, such as heat, spirit, air, the temperature of the air, matters in putrefaction, &c., or they are at once natural and animated bodies; for he also makes use of the motions, or forces, or vital principles of animals in some certain way, to the perfection of the universe and the procreation of the several kinds of animated beings.
From what has now been said, we are apprized to a certain extent of the share which the male has in the business of generation. The cock confers that upon the egg, which, from unprolific, makes it prolific, this being identical with that which the fruit of vegetables receives from the fervour of the summer sun, which secures to them maturity, and to their seeds fer- tility ; and not different from that which fertilizes things spon- taneously engendered, and brings caterpillars from worms, aurelias from caterpillars, from aurelias moths, butterflies, bees, &c.
In this way is the sun, by his approach, both the beginning of motion and transmutation in the coming fruit, and the end, also, inasmuch as he is the author of the fertility of its included seed : and, as early spring is the prime efficient of leaves and flowers and fruits, so is summer, in its strength,, the cause of final perfection in the ripeness and fecundity of the seed. With a
