of the invitation
to the feast, to which those who were absorbed in their own affairs
could not respond, seems to indicate a fact similar to this
intellectual fact, that the "preoccupations" of complicated
pre-existing ideas prevent the new and obvious truth that presents
itself, from entering in. It is for this reason that we need the
Precursor to make ready for the Messiah. And for this reason the
Messiah, and also new ideas, are readily received by the "simple," by
those who are not "laden with heavy preoccupations," but have
preserved the natural characteristics of the spirit: to be pure and
always "expectant."

When in 1628 Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood,
physiology was almost unknown, and medicine was in the full tide of
empiricism. It is well known that the Faculty of Medicine of Paris
refused to believe in circulation, in _spite of_ experiments, and that
it persecuted and calumniated Harvey. "That which pleases me in my
son," said Diafoirus, "and in which he follows my example, is, that he
remains faithful to the opinions of our ancient teachers, and that he
has always refused either to _understand_ or to _listen_ to the
arguments and experiments of the pretended discoveries of our century,
especially as regards the circulation of the blood."

* * * * *

The history of the discovery of germinative foliations in the
embryonic development of vertebrates forms one of the most impressive
of human documents. In 1700 the theory of _pre-formation_ was
vigorously upheld amongst the many ideas relating to generation: that
is to say, it was believed that the germs contained little organisms
completely formed which would eventually unfold and increase the parts
of infinitesimal dimensions which were packed one within the other.
This theory applied to every living creature, animal, vegetable, and
human. It had led, by its own logical development, to the more
far-reaching theory of "mutual inclusion"--that is, the doctrine that,
as all living organisms are _pre-formed_, they must of necessity all
have existed from the Creation, the one included, or wrapped up, in
the other. All humanity must have lain in the ovaries of Eve. When in
1690 Leuwenhoek discovered spermatozoa by the aid of the microscope,
the idea was evolved that each male cell contained a complete
microscopic man, the _homunculus_; and then it was announced that not
Eve, but Adam had contained all humanity within himself. Henc