ἐν Ἐλευσῖνι μετὰ τὰ μυστήρια τῆς πανηγύρεως ἀκμαζούσης, εἱστιώμεθα παρὰ Γλαυκίᾳ τῷ ῥήτορι. πεπαυμένων δὲ δειπνεῖν τῶν ἄλλων, Ξενοκλῆς ὁ Δελφὸς ὥσπερ εἰώθει τὸν ἀδελφὸν ἡμῶν Λαμπρίαν εἰς ἀδδηφαγίαν Βοιώτιον ἐπέσκωπτεν. ἐγὼ δʼ ἀμυνόμενος ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ τὸν Ξενοκλέα τοῖς Ἐπικούρου λόγοις χρώμενον οὐ γὰρ ἅπαντες εἶπον ὦ βέλτιστε, ποιοῦνται τὴν τοῦ ἀλγοῦντος ὑπεξαίρεσιν ὅρον ἡδονῆς καὶ πέρας· Λαμπρίᾳ δὲ καὶ ἀνάγκη, πρὸ τοῦ κήπου κυδαίνοντι τὸν περίπατον καὶ τὸ Λύκειον ἔργῳ μαρτυρεῖν Ἀρἰστοτέλει· φησι γὰρ ὁ ἀνὴρ βρωτικώτατον ἕκαστον αὐτὸν αὑτοῦ περὶ τὸ φθινόπωρον εἶναι, καὶ τὴν αἰτίαν ἐπείρηκεν ἐγὼ δʼ οὐ μνημονεύωβέλτιον εἶπεν ὁ Γλαυκίας αὐτοὶ γὰρ ἐπιχειρήσομεν ζητεῖν, ὅταν παυσώμεθα δειπνοῦντες. ὡς οὖν ἀφῃρέθησαν αἱ τράπεζαι, γλαυκίας μὲν καὶ Ξενοκλῆς ᾐτιάσαντο τὴν ὀπώραν διαφόρως, ὁ μὲν ὡς τὴν κοιλίαν ὑπεξάγουσαν καὶ τῷ κενοῦσθαι τὸ σῶμα νεαρὰς ὀρέξεις ἀεὶ παρασκευάζουσαν· ὁ δὲ Ξενοκλῆς ἔλεγεν εὔστομόν τι καὶ δηκτικὸν ἔχοντα τῶν ὡραίων τὰ πλεῖστα τὸν στόμαχον ἐπὶ τὴν βρῶσιν ἐκκαλεῖσθαι παντὸς μᾶλλον ὄψου καὶ ἡδύσματος· καὶ γὰρ τοῖς ἀποσίτοις τῶν ἀρρώστων ὀπώρας τι προσενεχθὲν ἀναλαμβάνει τὴν ὄρεξιν. ὁ δὲ Λαμπρίας εἶπεν, ὅτι τὸ οἰκεῖον καὶ τὸ σύμφυτον θερμὸν ἡμῶν, ᾧ τρέφεσθαι πεφύκαμεν, ἐν μὲν τῷ θέρει διέσπαρται καὶ γέγονεν ἀσθενέστερον καὶ μανόν, ἐν δὲ τῷ φθίνοντι καιρῷ συναγείρεται πάλιν καὶ ἰσχύει, κατακρυπτόμενον ἐντὸς διὰ τὴν περίψυξιν καὶ τὴν πύκνωσιν τοῦ σώματος. ἐγὼ δʼ ὑπὲρ τοῦ μὴ δοκεῖν ἀσύμβολος τοῦ λόγου μετασχεῖν εἶπον, ὅτι τοῦ θέρους διψητικώτεροι γιγνόμεθα καὶ πλείονι χρώμεθα τῷ ὑγρῷ διὰ τὸ καῦμα· νῦν οὖν ἡ φύσις ἐν τῇ μεταβολῇ ζητοῦσα τοὐναντίον, ὥσπερ εἴωθε, πεινητικωτέρους ποιεῖ, καὶ τὴν ξηρὰν τροφὴν τῇ κράσει τοῦ σώματος· ἀνταποδίδωσιν. οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ τὰ σιτία φήσαι τις ἂν αἰτίας ἀμοιρεῖν παντάπασιν, ἀλλʼ ἐκ νέων καὶ προσφάτων γενόμενα καρπῶν οὐ μόνον μάζας καὶ ὄσπρια καὶ ἄρτους καὶ πυροὺς, ἀλλὰ καὶ κρέα ζῴων εὐωχουμένων τὰ ἐπέτεια τοῖς τε χυμοῖς διαφέρειν τῶν παλαιῶν καὶ μᾶλλον ἐπάγεσθαι τοὺς χρωμένους καὶ ἀπολαύοντας.
IN Eleusis, after the solemn celebration of the sacred mysteries, Glaucias the orator entertained us at a feast; where, after the rest had done, Xenocles of Delphi, as his humor is, began to be smart upon my brother Lamprias for his good Boeotian stomach. I in his defence opposing Xenocles, who was an Epicurean, said, Pray, sir, do not all place the very essence of pleasure in privation of pain and suffering? But Lamprias, who prefers the Lyceum before the Garden, ought by his practice to confirm Aristotle’s doctrine; for he affirms that every man hath a better stomach in the autumn than in other seasons of the year, and gives the reason, which I cannot remember at present. So much the better (says Glaucias), for when supper is done, we will endeavor to discover it ourselves. That being over, Glaucias and Xenocles drew various reasons from the autumnal fruit. One said, that it scoured the body, and by this evacuation continually raised new appetites. Xenocles affirmed, that ripe fruit had usually a pleasing vellicating sapor, and thereby provoked the appetite better than sauces or sweetmeats; for sick men of a vitiated stomach usually recover it by eating fruit. But Lamprias said, that our natural heat, the principal instrument of nutrition, in the midst of summer is scattered and becomes rare and weak, but in autumn it unites again and gathers strength, being shut in by the ambient cold and contraction of the pores. I for my part said: In summer we are more thirsty and use more moisture than in other seasons; and therefore Nature, observing the same method in all her operations, at this change of seasons employs the contrary and makes us hungry; and to maintain an equal temper in the body, she gives us dry food to countervail the moisture taken in the summer. Yet none can deny but that the food itself is a partial cause; for not only new fruit, bread, or corn, but flesh of the same year, is better tasted than that of the former, more forcibly provokes the guests, and enticeth them to eat on.
ἐξ ἐνυπνίου τινὸς ἀπειχόμην ᾠῶν πολὺν ἡδο παρὰ τοῦτο ποιούμενος, ἐν καθάπερ ἐν Καρὶ διάπειραν λαβεῖν τῆς ὄψεως ἐναργῶς μοι πολλάκις γενομένης· ὑπόνοιαν μέντοι παρέσχον, ἑστιῶντος ἡμᾶς Σοσσίου Σενεκίωνος, ἐνέχεσθαι δόγμασιν Ὀρφικοῖς ἢ Πυθαγορικοῖς, καὶ τὸ ᾠόν, ὥσπερ ἔνιοι καρδίαν καὶ ἐγκέφαλον, ἀρχὴν ἡγούμενος γενέσεως ἀφοσιοῦσθαι· καὶ προὔφερεν Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Ἐπικούρειος ἐπὶ γέλωτι τὸ ἶσόν τοι κυάμους ἔσθειν κεφαλάς τε τοκήων ὡς δὴ κυάμους τὰ ᾠὰ διὰ τὴν κύησιν αἰνιττομένων τῶν ἀνδρῶν, διαφέρειν δὲ μηδὲν οἰομένων τὸ ἐσθίειν ᾠὰ τοῦ χρῆσθαι τοῖς τίκτουσι τὰ ᾠὰ ζῴοις. ἐγίγνετο δὴ τὸ τῆς αἰτίας ἀπολόγημα τῆς αἰτίας αὐτῆς ἀλογώτερον, Ἐπικουρείῳ λέγειν ἐνύπνιον. ὅθεν οὐ παρῃτούμην τὴν δόξαν ἅμα προσπαίζων τι τῷ Ἀλεξάνδρῳ καὶ γὰρ ἦν χαρίεις καὶ φιλόλογος ἐπιεικῶς.
WHEN upon a dream I had forborne eggs a long time, on purpose that in an egg (as in a Carian) I might make experiment of a notable vision that often troubled me; some at Sossius Senecio’s table suspected that I was tainted with Orpheus’s or Pythagoras’s opinions, and refused to cat an egg (as some do the heart and brain) imagining it to be the principle of generation. And Alexander the Epicurean ridiculingly repeated,— To feed on beans and parents’ heads / Is equal sin; / as if the Pythagoreans covertly meant eggs by the word κύαμοι (beans), deriving it from κύω or κυέω (to conceive), and thought it as unlawful to feed on eggs as on the animals that lay them. Now to pretend a dream for the cause of my abstaining, to an Epicurean, had been a defence more irrational than the cause itself; and therefore I suffered jocose Alexander to enjoy his opinion, for he was a pleasant man and excellently learned.
ἐκ δὲ τούτου τὸ ἄπορον καὶ πολλὰ πράγματα τοῖς ζητητικοῖς παρέχον εἰς μέσον εἷλκε πρόβλημα περὶ τοῦ ᾠοῦ καὶ τῆς ὄρνιθος, ὁπότερον γένοιτο πρότερον αὐτῶν. καὶ Σύλλας μὲν ὁ ἑταῖρος εἰπὼν ὅτι μικρῷ προβλήματι καθάπερ ὀργάνῳ μέγα καὶ βαρὺ σαλεύομεν τὸ περὶ τῆς τοῦ κόσμου γενέσεως, ἀπηγόρευσε. τοῦ δʼ Ἀλεξάνδρου τῆς ζητήσεως ὡς μηδὲν προσφυὲς φερούσης καταγελάσαντος, ὁ γαμβρὸς ἡμῶν Φίρμος ἐμοὶ τοίνυν ἔφη χρῆσον ἐν τῷ παρόντι τὰς ἀτόμους. εἰ γὰρ τὰ μικρὰ δεῖ στοιχεῖα τῶν μεγάλων ἀρχὰς ὑποτίθεσθαι, πρῶτον εἰκὸς ἐστι τὸ ᾠὸν γεγονέναι τῆς ὄρνιθος· ἔστι γὰρ καὶ ἁπλοῦν, ὡς ἐν αἰσθητοῖς· ποικίλον δὲ καὶ μεμιγμένον μᾶλλον ἡ ὄρνις. καθόλου δʼ ἡ μὲν ἀρχὴ πρῶτον ἀρχὴ δὲ τὸ σπέρμα, τὸ δʼ ᾠὸν σπέρματος; μὲν πλέον ζῴου δὲ μικρότερον. ὡς γὰρ ἡ προκοπὴ μέσον εὐφυΐας εἶναι δοκεῖ καὶ ἀρετῆς, οὕτω τὸ ᾠὸν προκοπὴ τίς ἐστι τῆς φύσεως ἐπὶ τὸ ἔμψυχον ἀπὸ τοῦ σπέρματος πορευομένης. ἔτι δʼ, ὥσπερ ἐν τῷ ζῴῳ πρῶτα γίγνεσθαι λέγουσιν ἀρτηρίας καὶ φλέβας, οὕτω λόγον ἔχει καὶ τοῦ ζῴου τὸ ᾠὸν γεγονέναι πρῶτον, ὡς περιέχον ἐμπεριεχομένου. καὶ γὰρ αἱ τέχναι πρῶτον ἀτύπωτα καὶ ἄμορφα πλάττουσιν, εἶθʼ ὕστερον ἕκαστα τοῖς εἴδεσι διαρθροῦσιν ᾕ Πολύκλειτος ὁ πλάστης εἶπε χαλεπώτατον εἶναι τοὔργον, ὅταν ἐν ὄνυχι ὁ πηλὸς γένηται. διὸ καὶ τῇ φύσει τὸ πρῶτον εἰκός ἐστιν ἀτρέμα κινούσῃ τὴν ὕλην ἀργοτέραν ὑπακούειν, τύπους ἀμόρφους καὶ ἀορίστους ἐκφέρουσαν ὥσπερ τὰ ᾠά· μορφουμένων δὲ τούτων καὶ διαχαρασσομένων, ὕστερον ἐνδημιουργεῖσθαι τὸ ζῷον. ὡς δὲ κάμπη γίγνεται τὸ πρῶτον, εἶτʼ ἐκπαγεῖσα διὰ ξηρότητα καὶ περιρραγεῖσα ἕτερον πτερωθὲν διʼ αὑτῆς τὴν καλουμένην ψυχὴν μεθίησι, τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον ἐνταῦθα προϋφίσταται τὸ ᾠὸν οἷον ὕλη τῆς γενέσεως. ἀνάγκη γὰρ ἐν πάσῃ μεταβολῇ πρότερον εἶναι τοῦ μεταβάλλοντος τὸ ἐξ οὗ μετέβαλε. σκόπει δʼ ὅτι σκνῖπες ἐν δένδρῳ καὶ τερηδόνες ἐμφύονται ξύλῳ κατὰ σῆψιν ὑγρότητος ἢ πέψιν· ὧν οὐδεὶς ἂν ἀξιώσειεν μὴ προϋποκεῖσθαι μηδὲ πρεσβύτερον εἶναι φύσει τὸ γεννῶν. ἡ γὰρ ὕλη λόγον ἔχει πρὸς τὰ γιγνόμενα μητρὸς ὥς φησι Πλάτων καὶ τιθήνης ὕλη δὲ πᾶν, ἐξ οὗ σύστασιν ἔχει τὸ γεννώμενον τὸ δʼ ἐπὶ τούτοις ἔφη γελάσας ἀείσω ξυνετοῖσι τὸν Ὀρφικὸν καὶ ἱερὸν λόγον, ὃς οὐκ ὄρνιθος μόνον τὸ ᾠὸν ἀποφαίνει πρεσβύτερον, ἀλλὰ καὶ συλλαβὼν ἅπασαν αὐτῷ τὴν ἁπάντων ὁμοῦ πρεσβυγένειαν ἀνατίθησι. καὶ τἄλλα μὲν εὔστομα κείσθω καθʼ Ἡρόδοτον· ἔστι γὰρ μυστικώτερα· ζῴων δὲ πολλὰς φύσεις τοῦ κόσμου περιέχοντος, οὐδὲν ὡς εἰπεῖν γένος ἄμοιρόν ἐστι τῆς ἐξ ᾠοῦ γενέσεως· ἀλλὰ καὶ πτηνὰ γεννᾷ καὶ νηκτὰ μυρία καὶ χερσαῖα, σαύρας, καὶ ἀμφίβια, κροκοδείλους, καὶ δίποδα, τὸν ὄρνιν, καὶ ἄποδα, τὸν ὄφιν, καὶ πολύποδα, τὸν ἀττέλεβον· ὅθεν οὐκ ἀπὸ τρόπου τοῖς περὶ τὸν Διόνυσον ὀργιασμοῖς ὡς μίμημα τοῦ τὰ πάντα γεννῶντος καὶ περιέχοντος ἐν ἑαυτῷ συγκαθωσίωται.
Soon after he proposed that perplexed question, that plague of the inquisitive, Which was first, the bird or the egg? And my friend Sylla, saying that with this little question, as with an engine, we shook the great and weighty question (whether the world had a beginning), declared his dislike of such problems. But Alexander deriding the question as slight and impertinent, my relation Firmus said: Well, sir, at present your atoms will do me some service; for if we suppose that small things must be the principles of greater, it is likely that the egg was before the bird; for an egg amongst sensible things is very simple, and the bird is more mixed, and contains a greater variety of parts. It is universally true, that a principle is before that whose principle it is; now the seed is a principle, and the egg is somewhat more than the seed, and less than the bird; for as a disposition or a progress in goodness is something between a tractable mind and a habit of virtue, so an egg is as it were a progress of Nature tending from the seed to a perfect animal. And as in an animal they say the veins and arteries are formed first, upon the same account the egg should be before the bird, as the thing containing before the thing contained. Thus art first makes rude and ill-shapen figures, and afterwards perfects every thing with its proper form; and it was for this reason that the statuary Polycletus said, Then our work is most difficult, when the clay comes to be fashioned by the nail. So it is probable that matter, not readily obeying the slow motions of contriving Nature, at first frames rude and indefinite masses, as the egg, and of these moulded anew, and joined in better order, the animal afterward is formed. As the canker is first, and then growing dry and cleaving lets forth a winged animal, called psyche; so the egg is first as it were the subject matter of the generation. For it is certain that, in every change, that out of which the thing changes must be before the thing changing. Observe how worms and caterpillars are bred in trees from the moisture corrupted or concocted; now none can say but that the engendering moisture is naturally before all these. For (as Plato says) matter is as a mother or nurse in respect of the bodies that are formed, and we call that matter out of which any thing that is is made. And with a smile continued he, I speak to those that are acquainted with the mystical and sacred discourse of Orpheus, who not only affirms the egg to be before the bird, but makes it the first being in the whole world. The other parts, because deep mysteries (as Herodotus would say), we shall now pass by; but let us look upon the various kinds of animals, and we shall find almost every one beginning from an egg,—fowls and fishes; land animals, as lizards; amphibious, as crocodiles; some with two legs, as a cock; some without any, as a snake; and some with many, as a locust. And therefore in the solemnly feast of Bacchus it is very well done to dedicate an egg, as the emblem of that which begets and contains every thing in itself.
ταῦτα τοῦ Φίρμου διεξιόντος, ὁ Σενεκίων ἔφη τὴν τελευταίαν τῶν εἰκόνων αὐτῷ πρώτην ἀντιπίπτειν. ἔλαθες γάρ εἶπεν ὦ Φίρμε, τὸν κόσμον ἀντὶ τῆς παροιμιακῆς θύρας ἐπὶ σεαυτὸν ἀνοίξας· ὁ γὰρ κόσμος προϋφέστηκε πάντων τελειότατος ὤν· καὶ λόγον ἔχει τοῦ ἀτελοῦς φύσει πρότερον εἶναι τὸ τέλειον, ὡς τοῦ πεπηρωμένου τὸ ὁλόκληρον καὶ τοῦ μέρους τὸ ὅλον· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἔχει λόγον εἶναι μέρος οὗ μέρος; ἐστὶ μὴ γεγονότος. ὅθεν οὐθεὶς λέγει τοῦ σπέρματος εἶναι τὸν ἄνθρωπον οὐδὲ τοῦ ᾠοῦ τὴν ἀλεκτορίδα, τῆς δʼ ἀλεκτορίδος τὸ ᾠὸν εἶναι καὶ τὸ σπέρμα τοῦ ἀνθρώπου λέγομεν, ὡς τούτων ἐπιγιγνομένων ἐκείνοις καὶ τὴν γένεσιν ἐν ἐκείνοις λαμβανόντων εἶθʼ ὥσπερ ὄφλημα τῇ φύσει τὴν γένεσιν ἀποδιδόντων. ἐνδεᾶ γάρ ἐστι, τοῦ οἰκείου· διὸ καὶ βούλεσθαι ποιεῖν πέφυκεν ἄλλο τοιοῦτον, οἷον ἦν ἐξ οὗ ἀπεκρίθη. καὶ τὸν σπερματικὸν λόγον ὁρίζονται γόνον ἐνδεᾶ γενέσεως· ἐνδεὲς δʼ οὐδέν ἐστι τοῦ μὴ γενομένου μηδʼ ὄντος· τὰ δʼ ᾠὰ καὶ παντάπασι βλέπεται τὴν φύσιν ἔχοντα τῆς ἔν τινι ζῴῳ πήξεως καὶ συστάσεως ὀργάνων τε τοιούτων καὶ ἀγγείων δεομένην. ὅθεν οὐδʼ ἱστόρηται γηγενὲς ᾠόν· ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ· Τυνδάρειον οἱ ποιηταὶ λέγουσιν οὐρανοπετὲς ἀναφανῆναι. ζῷα δʼ αὐτοτελῆ καὶ ὁλόκληρα μέχρι νῦν ἀναδίδωσιν ἡ γῆ, μῦς ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ πολλαχοῦ δʼ ὄφεις καὶ βατράχους καὶ τέττιγας, ἀρχῆς ἔξωθεν ἑτέρας καὶ δυνάμεως ἐγγενομένης. ἐν δὲ Σικελίᾳ περὶ τὸν δουλικὸν πόλεμον, αἵματος πολλοῦ καὶ νεκρῶν ἀτάφων ἐν τῇ γῇ κατασαπέντων, πλῆθος ἀττελέβων ἐξήνθησε καὶ τὸν σῖτον ἔφθειρον πανταχοῦ σκεδασθέντες ἐπὶ τὴν νῆσον. ταῦτα τοίνυν ἐκ γῆς φύεται καὶ τρέφεται καὶ τροφῆς περίσσωμα ποιεῖ γόνιμον, ᾧ καθʼ ἡδονὰς πρὸς ἄλληλα τρέπεται, καὶ συνδυαζόμενα τῇ μίξει τὰ μὲν ᾠοτοκεῖν τὰ δὲ ζῳοτοκεῖν πέφυκε. καὶ τούτῳ μάλιστα δῆλόν ἐστιν, ὅτι τὴν πρώτην γένεσιν ἐκ γῆς λαβόντα καθʼ ἕτερον τρόπον ἤδη καὶ· διʼ ἀλλήλων ποιεῖται τὰς τεκνώσεις. καθόλου δʼ ὅμοιόν ἐστι τῷ λέγειν, πρὸ τῆς γυναικὸς ἡ μήτρα γέγονεν· ὡς γὰρ ἡ μήτρα πρὸς τὸ ᾠόν, οὕτω πάλιν τὸ ᾠὸν πρὸς τὸν νεοσσὸν πέφυκε, κυόμενον ἐν αὐτῷ καὶ λοχευόμενον ὥστε μηδὲν διαφέρειν τὸν διαποροῦντα, πῶς ὄρνιθες ἐγένοντο μὴ γενομένων ᾠῶν, τοῦ πυνθανομένου, πῶς ἄνδρες ἐγένοντο καὶ γυναῖκες πρὶν αἰδοῖα γενέσθαι καὶ μήτρας. καίτοι τῶν μερῶν τὰ πλεῖστα συνυφίσταται τοῖς ὅλοις, αἱ δὲ δυνάμεις ἐπιγίνονται τοῖς μέρεσιν αἱ δʼ ἐνέργειαι ταῖς δυνάμεσι, τὰ δʼ ἀποτελέσματα ταῖς ἐνεργείαις· ἀποτέλεσμα δὲ τῆς γεννητικῆς τῶν μορίων δυνάμεως τὸ σπέρμα καὶ τὸ ᾠόν· ὥστε τῆς τῶν ὅλων καθυστερεῖν γενέσεως. σκόπει δὲ μή, καθάπερ οὐ δυνατόν ἐστι πέψιν τροφῆς εἶναι πρὶν ἢ γενέσθαι ζῷον, οὕτως οὐδʼ ᾠὸν οὐδὲ σπέρμα· καὶ γὰρ ταῦτα πέψεσί τισι καὶ μεταβολαῖς ἐπιγενέσθαι ἔοικεν· καὶ οὐχ οἷόν τε, πρὶν ἢ γενέσθαι ζῷον, ἔχειν ζῴου τροφῆς περίττωμα τὴν φύσιν. οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ τὸ σπέρμα μὲν ἁμωσγέπως ἀρχῆς τινος ἀντιποιεῖται, τὸ δʼ ᾠὸν οὔτʼ ἀρχῆς ἔχει λόγον, οὐ γὰρ ὑφίσταται πρῶτον· οὔθʼ ὅλου φύσιν, ἀτελὲς γάρ ἐστιν. ὅθεν ἀρχῆς μὲν ἄνευ γεγονέναι ζῷον οὐ λέγομεν, ἀρχὴν δʼ εἶναι ζῳογονίας, ὑφʼ ἧς πρῶτον ἡ ὕλη μετέβαλε, δυνάμεως κρᾶσίν τινα καὶ μῖξιν ἐνεργασαμένης γόνιμον· τὸ δʼ ᾠὸν ἐπιγέννημα εἶναι, καθάπερ τὸ αἷμα καὶ τὸ γάλα, τοῦ ζῴου μετὰ τροφὴν καὶ πέψιν· οὐ γὰρ ὦπται συνιστάμενον ᾠὸν ἐκ τῆς ἰλύος, ἀλλʼ ἐν μόνῳ ζῴῳ τοῦτο τὴν σύστασιν ἔχει καὶ γένεσιν· ζῷα δὲ καθʼ αὑτὰ μυρία συνίσταται. καὶ τί δεῖ λέγειν τἄλλα; πολλῶν γὰρ ἐγχέλεων ἁλισκομένων, οὐδεὶς ἑώρακεν οὔτε θορὸν οὔτʼ ᾠὸν ἔγχελυν ἔχουσαν· ἀλλὰ κἂν τὸ ὕδωρ τις ἐξαρύσῃ καὶ τὴν ἰλὺν ἀναξύσῃ πᾶσαν, εἰς τὸν τόπον ὕδατος συρρυέντος ἐγχέλεις ζῳογονοῦνται. δεῖ οὖν ὕστερον ἀνάγκῃ γεγονέναι τὸ θατέρου δεόμενον πρὸς γένεσιν· δὲ καὶ νῦν θατέρου χωρὶς ἄλλως ὑπάρχει συνίστασθαι, τοῦτο προτερεῖν τῇ ἀρχῇ τῆς γενέσεως. περὶ ἐκείνης γὰρ ἔστι τῆς πρώτης ὁ λόγος· ἐπεὶ νῦν γε καὶ νεοττιὰς συντίθησι τὰ πτηνὰ πρὸ τῆς ᾠοτοκίας, καὶ σπάργανα παρασκευάζουσιν αἱ γυναῖκες· ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἂν εἴποις καὶ νεοττιὰν ᾠοῦ γεγονέναι πρότερον καὶ σπάργανα παίδων. οὐ γὰρ γῆ φησὶν ὁ Πλάτωνγυναῖκα, γῆν δὲ γυνὴ μιμεῖται καὶ τῶν ἄλλων θηλέων ἕκαστον. διὸ πρώτην γένεσιν εἰκός ἐστιν ἐκ γῆς τελειότητι καὶ ῥώμῃ τοῦ γεννῶντος αὐτοτελῆ καὶ ἀπροσδεᾶ γενέσθαι, τοιούτων ὀργάνων καὶ στεγασμάτων καὶ ἀγγείων μὴ δεομένην, ἃ νῦν ἡ φύσις ἐν τοῖς τίκτουσιν ἐργάζεται καὶ μηχανᾶται διʼ ἀσθένειαν.
To this discourse of Firmus, Senecio replied: Sir, your last similitude contradicts your first, and you have unwittingly opened the world (instead of the door, as the saying is) against yourself. For the world was before all, being the most perfect; and it is rational that the perfect in Nature should be before the imperfect, as the sound before the maimed, and the whole before the part. For it is absurd that there should be a part when there is nothing whose part it is; and therefore nobody says the seed’s man or egg’s hen, but the man’s seed and hen’s egg; because those being after these and formed in them, pay as it were a debt to Nature, by bringing forth another. For they are not in themselves perfect, and therefore have a natural appetite to produce such a thing as that out of which they were first formed; and therefore seed is defined as a telling produced that is to be perfected by another production. Now nothing can be perfected by or want that which as yet is not. Everybody sees that eggs have the nature of a concretion or consistence in some animal or other, but want those organs, veins, and muscles which animals enjoy. Therefore no story delivers that ever any egg was formed immediately from earth; and the poets themselves tell us, that the egg out of which came the Tyndaridae fell down from heaven. But even till this time the earth produceth some perfect and organized animals, as mice in Egypt, and snakes, frogs, and grasshoppers almost everywhere, some external and invigorating principle assisting in the production. And in Sicily, where in the servile war much blood was shed, and many carcasses rotted on the ground, whole swarms of locusts were produced, and spoiled the corn over the whole isle. Such spring from and are nourished by the earth; and seed being formed in them, pleasure and titillation provoke them to mix, upon which some lay eggs, and some bring forth their young alive; and this evidently proves that animals first sprang from earth, and afterwards by copulation, after different ways, propagated their several kinds. In short, it is the same thing as if you said the womb was before the woman; for as the womb is to the egg, the egg is to the chick that is formed in it; so that he that inquires how birds should be when there were no eggs, might ask as well how men and women could be before any organs of generation were formed. Parts generally have their subsistence together with the whole; particular powers follow particular members, and operations follow those powers, and effects those operations. Now the effect of the generative power is the seed and egg; so that these must be after the formation of the whole. Therefore consider, as there can be no digestion of food before the animal is formed, so there can be no seed nor egg; for those, it is likely, are made by some digestion and alterations; nor can it be that, before the animal is, the superfluous parts of the food of the animal should have a being. Besides, though seed may perhaps pretend to be a principle, the egg cannot; for it doth not subsist first, nor hath it the nature of a whole, for it is imperfect. Therefore we do not affirm that the animal is produced without a principle of its being; but we call the principle that power which changes, mixes, and tempers the matter, so that a living creature is regularly produced; but the egg is an after-production, as the blood or milk of an animal after the taking in and digestion of the food. For we never see an egg formed immediately of mud, for it is produced in the bodies of animals alone; but a thousand living creatures rise from the mud. What need of many instances? None ever found the spawn or egg of an eel; yet if you empty a pit and take out all the mud, as soon as other water settles in it, eels likewise are presently produced. Now that must exist first which hath no need of any other thing that it may exist, and that after, which cannot be without the concurrence of another thing. And of this priority is our present discourse. Besides, birds build nests before they lay their eggs; and women provide cradles, swaddling-clothes, and the like; yet who says that the nest is before the egg, or the swaddling-clothes before the infant? For the earth (as Plato says) doth not imitate a woman, but a woman, and so likewise all other females, the earth. Moreover it is probable that the first production out of the earth, which was then vigorous and perfect, was self-sufficient and entire, nor stood in need of those secundines, membranes, and vessels, which now Nature forms to help the weakness and supply the defects of breeders.
Cite This Text