The following Copy of Verfes we have thought fit to infert without any Alterations: They are nothing near so polite and fine as they might be with fome Amendments, but there are fome better Thoughts in them than We commonly meet in more Artificial and Musical Measures.

Ay every one what beft does please him choose;

And with his unwife Choice himself abuse.

The empty Worldling feeks evanid Joys,
Placing his happiness in foolish Toys,
And Midas like, does add unto his Store,
Making that Gold which was but Lead before;
He gathers Wealth, but hides it under ground,
Poor amongft Poor, no poorer can be found;
What Nature craves, himself he does deny,
Full, untoucht Bags of Gold before him lye,
Choofing before the Guts, to fill the Eye.
So does the Afs with Silver loaded go,
But don't the worth of this his Burden know,
He's ftill an Afs and ever will be fo.
Others in fports delight to pass away

The grateful Hours of their more Ufeful Day;
They live in pleafure and indulge their Eafe,
And with deceitful Toys their Fancies please;
In Revelling their chiefest time they spend,
Remifs in Danger, careless of their End,
So when the Hook under the Bait does lie,
The unwary Fish becomes deceiv'd thereby.
Some Men in Villany confume their days,
The Fortune of their Family to raife,
Defpifing Vertue's Nobler Path, that fo
Through Guile they might the more renowned grow;
Counting those fordid Spirits who won't Cheat,
Or Lye, or Swear, that fo they may be great;
Rencountring pale-fac'd Death in every place,
That they might transfer Glory on their Race:
Thus Agrippina, Claudius Cafar fent
Unto the place of endless Punishment,
That the might place the Imperial Crown upon
The ignobler Head of her Ungrateful Son;
Though 'twas before foretold to her, that he
Her future cruel Murderer fhould be.
Others again are over-prels'd with Love,
(The purer fort indeed comes from above)
But this a Mongrel Baitard one does prove;
Which when it has with its falfe Guile oppreft,
Th' inward Receffes of a Mortals Breait,
Bears an unbounded Power over all,
The Nobler Vertues down before it fall,

}

Depriving

Depriving him of his defir'd Content,
Exceeding th' Enceladian Monument
In Burning heat; his Heart is fet on Fire
With the tormenting Flames of fierce Defire;
Thus Free-men Slaves, thus Heroes Mad-men turn;
Thus Men that Healthy were, with Feavers burn;
Thus he that Rul'd the Prudent and the Brave
Becomes th' Ufurping Woman's feeble Slave.
O the Bewitching Power of Females Eyes!
Which Worldly Friendship's hard-knit-Knots unties;
Friends murder Friends, (Friends do I call them? No;
They're Friends and Saints, if Devils be term'd fo)
Come tell in order, Skilful Athens, then,

Which be the Worst that thus are lov'd by Men?
Thus wife Minerva's Off-fpring you will please,
And Him who to admire the Prudent ne'er shall cease.

Q. We had fome time fince a | Letter fent us, defiring our Opinion of the Nature of Plants, As whether they are capable of pain when cut, or broken, &c. To which we shall endeavour to give a full Answer?

4. Whether the Nature of this Queftion may caule a greater pity for the Querift and Author, or furprize in the Reader, at the Novelty, is no great matter: But perhaps the Prejudice may not be altogether fo great, after a few Obfervations for the Affirmative, as may appear at first fight.

Yours at Command, &c.

Infects; Sweat and Urine produce Lice and Fleas; the lime of Mar fhes generate Frogs, being very Nitrous; Boats of Salt produce Rats, which conceive others by licking the Salt; Bees come from Oxen, Hornets from Horfes,Scor pions from Crabfifh, the Marrow of a Back-bone turns to a Serpent, with a hundred more fuch fabulous idle Stories; for by the help of Microfcopes We have difcover'd that all Animals and Infects,how ever mean and defpicable,are produced from Parents of their own Species, even to a Gnator a Mite.

We fhall first confider their Ge- Francifco Redi, upon neration; they have now for the innumerable Tryals Redi de 1ome thousand Years lain under that he made with pu- Genera the same scandal that Infects have, trid Flefh of all forts, ratione viz. That they are produc'd by E- corrupted Cheefe, Infed quivocal Generation. It would Fruits, Herbs, and In- rum. be too tedious (only for Compa- fects themselves, conrisons lake) to run over the old reftantly found that all these kinds of ceiv'd Opinions, that Salt holds putrefaction only afforded a Neft the place of the MafculineSeed,and and Aliment for the Young of Humidity the Feminine, and by these Infects that he admitted to this means Excrements' produce come to them, and when he feal'd Beetles, Flies, Worms, and other 'em up in Glaffes, Veffels cover'd

with

with Paper, fine Lawn, &c. no- put into a Glafs, that he might the thing was ever produc'd, even in more conveniently fee whether it the warm Climate of Florence. produc'd Grafs, or any thing elfes Malpighius alfo has obferv'd, this Glafs he cover'd with fine those Tumours and Excrefcences Lawn feveral heights above one of Plants, Leaves, &c. that yield another, to keep the fmalleft Seed Flies and Worms, are first made from falling into it, as alfo that it by fuch Infects which wound the might have the Conveniency of tender Buds with a hollowTrunk, the Air; and after having expos'd and depofite an Egg in the Hole this Veffel to the Air; for a long with a harp corrofive Liquor, Time, he found nothing at all to which caufeth a Swelling in the grow in it; but having put fome Leaf, and fo fhutteth up the Or-Seeds into it, they fprang up, and fice. We need not add the Expe- grew immediately. riments of Lewenhoeck, and others, If it be objected, that in Lonince now this Doctrine of Equi-don, after the Plague, Graf's grew vocal Generation is univerfally in the Streets, being not hindred exploded. by treading upon it, and that all Highways fpring up with Grafs when unfrequented, 'tis eafily anwer'd,That Seed of Grafsiseafily carry'd by the Wind from one place to another, but befides, there's no need of iuch a Supply where the Roots of Grafs are left behind, which will Ipring up when at Liberty; but in fuch place as there is neither Root nor Seed, as in the above Experiment, there will be nothing at all produc'd.

Asin the Generation of Infects, (whichare all offeminal Production) fo in Plants, Shrubs, Corn, nay, even Grass it felf, which of all Vegetatives has been fuppos'd to spring spontaneously out of the Earth, by the help of the Sun and Rain, and proper Fermentations. We need not run thro all theExperiments that have been upon this Head, We shall only confine our felves to show, that nothing even fo much as Grafs, is producible on the Earth without Seed, as moit difputable. We need not Anfwer the Objection that God Almighty commanded the Earth to bring forth Grafs, fince it had the fame Command for Trees bearing Fruit, and therefore cou'd only relate to the First Creation, not a continued Succeffion of Productions after the lame Manner: But to the Experiment.

Thus theGeneration of Plants, Herbs &c. is as certainly equivo cal as that of Brutes andMen,viz. produced as one Fire kindles another, and therefore noPrerogative can be claim'd by one above and ther, as to their Generation.

As to the Nutrition, Encrease, &c. of Vegetables, I come to confider them, but We fhall alio examine their Organs, and what Relation and Similitude they bear Malpighius (that curious Na- to thofe of Brutes, and confeturalift whom we have before quently to Ours, Mr. Konig, Phimention'd) fhows that the Earth lofoph: & Med. Dr. Bafil, is very which has no Seed in it leif, can politive in his Kingdom of Vegetaproduce nothing at all. He caus'dbies, that there is nothing in Anito be digg'd a pretty deep Pit, and inals, but there's fome Kelemtook of the Earth of it, which he

G&

blane

blance of it in Plants, and for the very fame Kind, there is a vaft dif

moit part they have the fame ference as to the Complexion and Parts and Organs with them,when conftitution of all Creatures,thofe they geminate under the ground, which are most tenderly and delithe Fatus which is form'd in the cately bred, gave their Arteries the Matrix is vifible, with him alfo liberty of spreading into extream M. Malpgbius agrees, who has fine branches, and thereby become fo far confider'd, and curioufly extream fenfible of Pain, or Plezexamin'd their Nature," That he fure; 'tis fo in the Vegetative "offers to fhow in Plants all the World, fome Trees, Plants, Herbs, fame parts which ferve to the &c. that are carefully manur'd, divers Functions of Life in Men and look'd after, are much fooner "and Beafts, fuch as are for recep- blafted than the wild Mountainous "tion of the Air for the ufe of ones, which are continually ex"the Plant, those which ferve to pos'd to the feverity of Wind and "the Concoction and digeftion of Weather; therefore if we can pol"the Aliment, the Circulation of fibly produce fome Inftances of the "Nutritive Succus, the Excern-fenfibility ofplants, we fhall bid fair "ment, or Excretion of Super-to prove it effential to thew bole,on"fluites, the Womb, with the ly by Accidents,feverer Usage,dif"feveral Apartments and Mem-ference of Contextures, &c. it "branes which invelop the Fatus. may not be foapparent in all: And Mr. Konig gives but a very lame its no Argument that a thing is Definition of the Soul of the Ve-not, because we cannot fee or ungetables, however, he agrees with derítand it. There is a Senfitive us, that this Soul is the principle of their Vegetation, and of Nutrition, Encrease, Propagation, &c. fince there's no Law (as yet known) of matter that can cause fuch Circulations and Motions as are in the Succus nutritivus, and other Plants. He has very well remark'd, that they have not only the fame Organs deftin'd to the fame ufes, but that they resemble 'em in infinite refpects, the fame accidents,and the fame revolutions happen to them in common with Animals; they increafe, feed, are vigorous, fick and dye. Nor can we be affur'd, That they have not Thought, and are fenfible of Pain and Pleafure in the proper Functi-ufes, when fall'n off the Tree, to ons of their Nature, but we have run away from those that come rather fome very good Reasons to near it: But Pliny is very pofitive believe the Affirmative. 'Tis un- as to his Balfam-tree, which tremquestionable, that not only in dif-bles when the Ax is near it: And terent Species, but often in the

Plant growing, as Scaliger and others relate in Zonolha, a part of Tartary, where the Inhabitants fow a fort of a Grain much like that of our Mellons, but fomewhat longer, from which grows an Herb, which they call Borran cetz, (or a Lamb) for it is juft like one having Feet,Horns,Ears; it taftes much like a Crevice, and grows to the Earth by a Root which enters in at its Navel, and it Eats all the Grass about it, as far as it can reach, and dies when it hath no Food. Anthony Pigefet (as I remember) tells us of a I ree much like a Mulbery, which has Leaves with little Feet, that it

Scaliger

I found he was a very good Phi lofopher, and understood our more abftrufe Aftronomy very well; he told me he had a Glafs of a Foot long, through which he could more exactly difcern the Faces of Jupiter, Statellites, and of the Stel

Scaliger, a more credible Author ly meeting, when either had a (if the two laft be fufpected) tells mind to difcourfe the other) we fell us of the Arbor pudica, which into feveral Miscellaneous Difcour upon the approach of a Man, or o- fes; among the rest, Concerning, ther Animal, Contracts its Boughs, the State of Humane Nature and extends them again upon their and of this Globe we inhabit. Departure, which is all obfervable in the Sponge: There is fuchan Uniformity in Nature between fome Plants and Animals, that there's scarce any difference but in local Motion; which yet is found in fome, as the Gourd and Cucum-ber, which follow the Neighbour-lula Circumfaturniales (whereof he ing Water, and fhape the Fruit in length to reach it. The Herba Viva of Arofta folds up its Leaves and Flowers when touch'd, Tulips do the fame in the Evening; the Carline Thiftle, call'd, The Peasants Almanack, folds up its Flowers when a Tempeft is at Hand; and innumerable more fuch Initances are there, which would perfwade us, that all Vegetatives have Senfe as well as Life, only ruggedness of the Contexture and Frame of mok, makes it imperceptible to us. We may carry the matter yet higher, but yet with a Queflion which we leave to the Ingenious, Whether, fince they have Senfe, (fome of ein at least apparently) they may not be faid to make rational Inferences, and be guided by a Soul capable of Abstract Speculations?

2

affirmed there were thirteen) than we can that of the Moon in our longeftTelescopes. He told me fome very furprizing Obfervations he had made on that, partly. Lucid, and partly Opaque Star, we fee revolve continually about its Axis in Collo ceti. He asked nie my Name, and told me, when he came that way next (which would not be very long) he would Communicate to me a perfect Theory of the Moon's Motion, which he had confirmed by Obfer vations, having before found it out a priori, from a New and (from any of ours) very different Hypothefis of Nature, whereof he hinted to me feveral very furprizing Particulars, one of the Results whereof was, That our Globe did very near approach its final Diffolution, and that by a Chain of Natural Caufes.

2 Not long fince walking in a Grove adjacent to my Houle, I He told me, he heard I was afound a Minifler walking alone, bout to Act fuch a certain thing, very folemnly reading a littleTrea-which if I did, it would prove very tife, Entituled, A Difplay of the Happiness of the Bleffed, I only faw the Title on the Top of the two Pages wherein he has rea ding, for he fhut the Book and put it into his Pocket.

After fome little Interrogatories (ufual amongStrangers accidental

unfuccefsful: This furprized me more than any thing he had yet fpoken, being Conleious to my telf, I had never Communicated it to any Perfon living. Iimmediately heard fomething like a great Stone that feemed to fall out of a Tree hard by, whereat turning

my