Chapter X: Madam,

Your _Author_ mentioning in his Works, several Seeds of several Creatures, makes me express my opinion thus in short concerning this Subject: Several Seeds seem to me no otherwise then several Humours, or several Elements, or several other Creatures made of one and the same Matter, that produce one thing out of another, and the barrenness of seeds proceeds either from the irregularity of their natural motions, or from their unaptness or unactivity of producing. But it is to be observed, _Madam_, that not every thing doth produce always its like, but one and the same thing, or one and the same Creature, hath many various and different productions; for sometimes Vegetables do produce Animals, Animals produce Minerals, Minerals produce Elements, and Elements again Minerals, and so forth: for proof I will bring but a mean and common example. Do not Animals produce Stones, some in one, and some in another part of their bodies, as some in the Heart, some in the Stomack, some in the Head, some in the Gall, some in the Kidnies, and some in the Bladder? I do not say, that this Generation of Stone is made the same way as the natural generation of Animals, as, for example, Man is born of his Parents; but I speak of the generation or production of Creatures in general, for otherwise all Creatures would be alike, if all generations were after one and the same manner and way. Likewise do not Fruits, Roots, Flowers and Herbs, produce Worms? And do not Stones produce Fire? witness the Flint. And doth not Earth produce Metal? 'Tis true, some talk of the seed of Metals, but who with all his diligent observations could find it out as yet? Wherefore it is, in my opinion, not probable, that Minerals are produced by way of seeds. Neither can I perceive that any of the Elements is produced by seed, unless Fire, which seems, to my sense and reason, to encrease numerously by its seed, but not any other of the Elements. And thus productions are almost as various as Creatures, or rather parts of Creatures, are; for we see how many productions there are in one animal body, as the production of flesh, bones, marrow, brains, gristles, veines, sinews, blood, and the like, and all this comes from Food, and Food from some other Creatures, but all have their original from the onely matter, and the various motions of Nature. And thus, in my opinion, all things are made easily, and not by such constrained ways as your _Author_ describes, by Gas, Blas, Ideas, and the like; for I am confident, Nature has more various ways of producing natural things then any Creature is able to conceive. I'le give another example of Vegetables, I pray you but to consider, _Madam_, how many several ways Vegetables are produced, as some by seeds, some by slips, some by grafts, &c. The graft infuses and commixes with the whole stock and the branches, and these do the like with the graft: As for example; an Apple grafted in Colewort produces Apples; but those Apples will have a taste and sent of the Colewort, which shews that several parts of several Creatures mix, joyn, and act together; and as for seeds, they are transchanged wholly, and every part thereof into the produced fruit, and every part of the seed makes a several production by the help of the co-working parts of the Earth, which is the reason that so many seeds are produced from one single seed; But Producers, that waste not themselves in productions, do not produce so numerously as those that do dissolve; yet all Creatures increase more or less, according to their supplies or assistances; for seeds will encrease and multiply more in manured and fertile then in barren grounds; nay, if the ground be very barren, no production at all will be; which shews, that productions come not barely from the seed, but require of necessity some assistance, and therefore neither Archeus, nor seminal Ideas, nor Gas, nor Blas, would do any good in Vegetables, if the ground did not assist them in their generations or productions, no more then a house would be built without the assistance of labourers or workmen; for let the materials lie never so long, surely they will never joyn together of themselves to the artificial structure of an house. Wherefore since there is so much variety in the production of one kind of Creatures, nay of every particular in every kind, what needs Man to trouble his brain for the manner and way to describe circumstantially every particular production of every Creature by seminal or printing Ideas, or any other far-fetched termes, since it is impossible to be done? And as for those Creatures whose producers are of two different sorts, as a Mule bred of an Asse and a Horse, and another Creature bred of a Cony and a Dormouse; all which your _Author_ thinks[1] do take more after their mother then their father, more after the breeder then the begetter; I will not eagerly affirm the contrary, although it seems to me more probable: But this I can say, that I have observed by experience, that Faunes and Foales have taken more after the Male then after the Female; for amongst many several colour'd Deer, I have seen but one milk white Doe; and she never brought forth a white Faun, when as I have seen a white Buck beget white and speckled Faunes of black and several coloured Does. Also in Foals I have observed, that they have taken more after the Male then after the Female, both in shape and colour. And thus I express no more, but what I have observed my self, others may find out more examples; these are sufficient for me; so I leave them, and rest,

Madam,

_Your faithful Friend_

_and Servant._

[1] In the _Ch._ the Position is demonstrated; and in the _ch._ called the Authority of the _Duumvirate_.