Page:Sir Thomas Browne's works, volume 3 (1835).djvu/202

 186 ENQUIRIES INTO VULGAR [BOOK VI.

Aristotle, in his books De Cœlo, declared]. Endeavouring to confirm it with arguments of reason, and those appearingly demonstrative ; wherein his labours are rational, and uncon- trolable upon the grounds assumed, that is, of physical gene- ration, and a primary or first matter, beyond which no other hand was apprehended. But herein we remain sufficiently satisfied from Moses, and the doctrine delivered of the crea- tion ; that is, a production of all things out of nothing, a formation not only of matter, but of form, and a materiation even of matter itself.

Others are so far from defining the original of the world or of mankind, that they have held opinions not only repug- nant unto chronology, but philosophy ; that is, that they had their beginning in the soil where they inhabited ; assuming or receiving appellations conformable unto such conceits. So did the Athenians term themselves GREEK or Aborigines, and in testimony thereof did wear a golden insect on their heads : the same name is also given unto the Inlanders, or Midland inhabitants of this island, by Csesar. But this a con- ceit answerable unto the generation of the giants ; not ad- mittable in philosophy, much less in divinity, which distinctly informeth we are all the seed of Adam, that the whole world perished, unto eight persons before the flood, and was after peopled by the colonies of the sons of Noah. There was therefore never any autochthon,- or man arising from the earth, but Adam ; for the woman being formed out of the rib, was once removed from earth, and framed from that element under incarnation. And so although her production were not by copulation, yet was it in a manner seminal : for if in every part from whence the seed doth flow, there be contained the idea of the whole ; there was a seminality and contracted Adam in the rib, which, by the information of a soul, was individuated unto Eve. And therefore this conceit applied unto the original of man, and the beginning of the world, is more justly appropriable unto its end ; for then in-

8 autochthon,} Autochthon, [rising himselfe from the earthe] which was not to bee granted of the first; who did not spring [as plants now doe] o( himselfe. For Adam was created out of the dust by God. The second Adam might bee trulyer called Autochthon, in a mystical sense, not only in respect of his birthe, but of his resurrection alsoe. — Wr.