ig8 ‘The consequences of the

ed upon by the matter joined to it, or mix-ed with it, by its vehicle, for instance, thanby the other matter of the body, to whichit is vitally united. These I think are butfruitless struggles of the imagination to graspthings that do not belong to it; to conceivethe action of spirit on matter, or matter on■spirit, after the manner of the action of mat-ter upon matter.

XXXII. This truth, that matter cannot bemoved without an immaterial Being, may helpto take away the old controversy, Whetherthe foul is propagated by tradudlion , kindledup as it were by the fouls of the parents, asone flame excites another, without losingany thing of itself; if it is true that there isa pre-existent animalcule in the semen, whichmoves spontaneously. And indeed there islittle reason to doubt this, more than to doubtthe circulation of the blood; both are disco-vered by sense the same way aflisted; if webelieve from the information of our eyes,that there are several very rapid torrents con-tinually, flowing in the slender film betweenthe toes of a frog, we must also believe thatthere are numerous animalcula in the male-seed. Besides that we must otherwise return.

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