Nor will any Vegetation proceed _in Vacuo_, or without Air: Seeds planted will not grow. OBJECTION. _Beans grow in Vacuo._ I answer, they grow a little tumid, but that kind of Vegetation is only owing to the Dilatation of the Air within them; they swell a little by the Expansion of the Air, but they never bud. Among the Ancients were very strange Notions about the _Original_ of Serpents, and other Animals: _Bees_, says a certain Orator, Historian, and Philosopher, were bred from the Carcass of Oxen; _Wasps_ from the Corruptions of Horses; _Beetles_ from Asses; and _Serpents_ from human Marrow: Hence they consecrated a Dragon to Kings and Princes, as a Creature peculiar to Man[6]. Footnote 6: _Plutarch_’s Lives of _Cleomenes_ and _Agis_. I don’t know how to form an Apology for the old Philosophers, whose Account of spontaneous Generation is perfectly romantick: What can be more so, than to say Frogs are engendered of Slime, or in the Clouds, and dropt down in the Showers of Rain? So the _Egyptians_ said, that Mice were produced from the Mud of _Nilus_, and Insects from putrified Matter animated by the Sun. The Principle of this equivocal Generation, was the old Doctrine of _Egypt_, and now justly exploded, as contrary to Reason and common Sense, as well as to the Design of the Creator in making Animals Male and Female; the End of which Difference in Sexes, all Animals exactly answer, as if they were endued with human Reason. No Woman more tender of her Babe, or careful in providing for it, than Animals are of their Young Ones. ---------------------------------------------------------------- SECTION II. The knowledge of mere Animals (who have no School for Arts and Sciences) is most surprising; these without visible Instructors, know how to perpetuate their Species to the End of the World; and how to order their Eggs, as those, who are apprized, their Successors were contained in them, and that it was in their power to produce them, and to perpetuate, or keep up the Name of their Family. The Serpentine Animals are thus taught by Nature; these differ in the Mode of Propagation; some of them are _viviparous_, an Epithet applied to such Animals, who lay their Eggs within their Bellies, who bring forth their Young Ones alive and perfect, as Vipers, Sheep, Hares; others are _oviparous_, and bring forth their Young from Eggs, as Serpents, Snakes, Lizards, Frogs, Salmon, Tortoise, Herrings, _&c._[7] Footnote 7: _Omnia ab ovo animalia._ In this Contrivance of Male and Female, and different Method of Multiplication for perpetuating the Species, we may see an admirable Instance of divine Wisdom: But for this Difference in Sexes, there would be no Increase of Serpents nor other Animals. The oviparous and viviparous Manner of Propagation is as wonderful; for,