rs to retire.

LI. But that the beauty of the world might be eternal, great care has
been taken by the providence of the Gods to perpetuate the different
kinds of animals, and vegetables, and trees, and all those things which
sink deep into the earth, and are contained in it by their roots and
trunks; in order to which every individual has within itself such
fertile seed that many are generated from one; and in vegetables this
seed is enclosed in the heart of their fruit, but in such abundance
that men may plentifully feed on it, and the earth be always replanted.

With regard to animals, do we not see how aptly they are formed for the
propagation of their species? Nature for this end created some males
and some females. Their parts are perfectly framed for generation, and
they have a wonderful propensity to copulation. When the seed has
fallen on the matrix, it draws almost all the nourishment to itself, by
which the foetus is formed; but as soon as it is discharged from
thence, if it is an animal that is nourished by milk, almost all the
food of the mother turns into milk, and the animal, without any
direction but by the pure instinct of nature, immediately hunts for the
teat, and is there fed with plenty. What makes it evidently appear that
there is nothing in this fortuitous, but the work of a wise and
foreseeing nature, is, that those females which bring forth many young,
as sows and bitches, have many teats, and those which bear a small
number have but few. What tenderness do beasts show in preserving and
raising up their young till they are able to defend themselves! They
say, indeed, that fish, when they have spawned, leave their eggs; but
the water easily supports them, and produces the young fry in
abundance.

LII. It is said, likewise, that tortoises and crocodiles, when they
have laid their eggs on the land, only cover them with earth, and then
leave them, so that their young are hatched and brought up without
assistance; but fowls and other birds seek for quiet places to lay in,
where they build their nests in the softest manner, for the surest
preservation of their eggs; which, when they have hatched, they defend
from the cold by the warmth of their wings, or screen them from the
sultry heat of the sun. When their young begin to be able to use their
wings, they attend and instruct them; and then their cares are at an
end.

Human art and industry are indeed necessary towards the preservation
and improv