Chapter XIX.
OF THE GENERATION OF ANIMALS, HOW ANIMALS ARE BEGOTTEN, AND WHETHER THEY ARE OBNOXIOUS TO CORRUPTION.
THOSE philosophers who entertain the opinion that the
world had an original do likewise assert that all animals
are generated and corruptible. The followers of Epicurus,
who gives an eternity to the world, affirm the generation
of animals ariseth from the various permutation of parts
mutually among themselves, for they are parts of this
world. With them Anaxagoras and Euripides concur:
For nothing dies,
But different changes give their various forms.
Anaximander's opinion is, that the first animals were generated in moisture, and were enclosed in bark on which
thorns grew; but in process of time they came upon dry
land, and this thorny bark with which they were covered
being broken, they lived for a short space of time. Empedocles says, that the first generation of animals and
plants was by no means completed, for the parts were
disjoined and would not admit of a union; the second
preparation for their being generated was when their parts
were united and appeared in the form of images; the
third preparation for generation was when their parts mutually amongst themselves gave a being to one another;
the fourth, when there was no longer a mixture of similar
elements (like earth and water), but a union of animals
among themselves,—in some the nourishment being made
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dense, in others female beauty provoking a lust of spermatic motion. All sorts of animals are discriminated by
their proper temperament and constitution; some are carried by a proper appetite and inclination to water; some,
which partake of a more fiery quality, to breathe in the
air; those that are heavier incline to the earth; but those
animals whose parts are of a just and equal temperament
are fitted equally for all places.
