some other conquering Agent, the Seeds have been Destroy'd, which
Disguis'd them, or when by time those seeds are Weari'd or Exantlated
or unable to Act their Parts upon the Stage of the Universe any
Longer: So in His Third Argument he Endeavours to evince the same
Conclusion, by the constitution of Bodies which he asserts to be
nothing but Water Subdu'd by Seminal Virtues. Of this he gives here
and there in his Writings several Instances, as to Plants and Animals;
but divers of them being Difficult either to be try'd or to be
Understood, and others of them being not altogether Unobnoxious to
Exceptions, I think you have singl'd out the Principal and less
Questionable Experiment when you lately mention'd that of the Willow
Tree. And having thus, Continues _Eleutherius_, to Answer your
Question, given you a Summary Account of what I am Confident You know
better then I do, I shall be very glad to receive Your Sence of it, if
the giving it me will not too much Divert You from the Prosecution of
your Discourse.
That _If_ (replies _Carneades_) was not needlessly annex'd: for
thorowly to examine such an Hypothesis and such Arguments would
require so many Considerations, and Consequently so much time, that I
should not now have the Liesure [Errata: leasure] to perfect such a
Digression, and much less to finish my Principle [Errata: principal]
Discourse. Yet thus much I shall tell You at present, that you need
not fear my rejecting this Opinion for its Novelty; since, however the
_Helmontians_ may in complement to their Master pretend it to be a new
Discovery, Yet though the Arguments be for the most part his, the
Opinion it self is very Antient: For _Diogenes Laertius_ and divers
other Authors speak of _Thales_, as the first among the _Graecians_
that made disquisitions upon nature. And of this _Thales_, I Remember,
_Tully_[5] informes us, that he taught all things were at first made
of Water. And it seems by _Plutarch_ and _Justin Martyr_, that the
Opinion was Ancienter then he: For they tell us that he us'd to defend
his Tenet by the Testimony of _Homer_. And a Greek Author, (the
_Scholiast_ of _Apollonius_) upon these Words
[Greek: Ex iliou [Transcriber's Note: iluos] eblastese chthon
aute],[6]
_The Earth of Slime was made,_
63