we inquire what is the "efficient," the architect, the adviser, but that we likewise venerate and adore the omnipotent Creator and preserver of a work, which has been well entitled a microcosm. We also ask whence this divine something comes, when it arrives, and where it resides in the egg; this something which is analogous to the essence of the stars, and is near akin to art and intelligence, and the vicar of the Almighty Creator?
From what precedes it will be apparent how difficult it were to enumerate all the efficient causes of the chick; it is indispensable, indeed, in the complete investigation of this subject to refer to a general disquisition; we could not from the single generation of the chick in ovo, and without clearer light derived from investigations extended to other animals, venture on conclusions that should be applicable to the whole animal creation. And this all the more, since Aristotle himself has enumerated such a variety of efficient principles of animals; for he at one time adduces the 'male'[1] as the principal efficient cause, as that, to wit, in which the reason of the engendered chick resides, according to the axiom;[2] "all things are made by the same 'univocal:' " at another time he takes 'the male semen;'[3] or, ' the nature of the male emitting semen:'[4] sometimes it is 'that which inheres in the semen,'[5] 'which causes seeds to be prolific, spirit, to wit, and nature in that spirit corresponding in its qualities to the essence of the stars:' elsewhere he says it is 'heat;'[6] 'moderate heat;'[7] 'a certain and proportionate degree of heat;'[8] 'the heat in the blood;'[9] 'the heat of the ambient air;' 'the winds;'[10] 'the sun;' 'the heavens;' 'Jupiter;' 'the soul;' and, somewhere, nature is spoken of by him as 'the principle of motion and rest.'
Aristotle[11] concludes the discussion on the efficient cause by declaring it "extremely doubtful" whether it be "anything extrinsic; or something inherent in the geniture or semen; and whether it be any part of the soul, or the soul itself, or something having a soul?"
- ↑ Metaphys. lib. i, c. 2; lib. iv, c. 1.
- ↑ Ib. lib. vii, cap. x.
- ↑ De Part, Anim. lib. i, cap. 1.
- ↑ De Gen. Anim. lib. i, cap. 20.
- ↑ Ibid. lib. ii, cap. 3.
- ↑ Ibid. lib. v, cap. 3.
- ↑ De Gen. Anim. lib. iv, cap. 2.
- ↑ Ibid. lib. iv, cap. 4.
- ↑ De Part. Anim. lib. ii, cap. 2.
- ↑ De Gen. Anim. lib. iv, cap. 2; et De Gen. et for. lib. ii, tit. 30.
- ↑ De Gen. Anim. lib. ii. cap. 1.
