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Ch. 1: Introduction

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INTRODUCTION.
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come into my possession. " The efficient or generative cause of stones has been variously assigned by diiferent writers. But passing over their conflicting theories let ns come to the true cause, and maintain with the greatest of philosophers, that the efficient virtue, or generative cause of stones, is a certain mineral virtue that subsists not merely in stones, but also in metals, and moreover in the sub­stances that hold the middle place between these two species. And forasmuch as we are without a proper name for this virtue, this one, that is to say, 'The Mineral Virtue,' hath been attributed to it by inquirers; 'for things that we are unable to express by their proper names, we are obliged to define by a similitude, not that the same facts are examples of the manner in which this mineral virtue subsists in stones,' to use Aristotle's words. For we give an example not because a thing is done in the same way, but in order that those who are learning may form an idea thereof; and thus, by taking the case of animal seed, we can illustrate in what manner the mineral virtue, which we assert is the efficient or generative cause of stones, operates in stones. Thus, we say that the seed of an animal is the superfluous nourishment descending into the spermatic vessels, and issuing out of those vessels. The efficient, or generative, virtue is infused in the seed itself, through means of which such spermatic matter is rendered fecundative, according to the doctrine held in natural history. The which virtue however doth not act by the means of its essence, but by the means of its in­herence; as we say, for example, an artist is implied in the idea of an object made by art. So by a parity of reasoning we maintain that in fit matter for the production of a stone there subsists a formative or efficient virtue for the producing a stone of this or that species, according to the disposition or requirements of the matter, the place, and
Ch. 1: Introduction Page of 377 Ch. 1: Introduction
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