"I tried... by fixing the leggs of a Fly upon the top of the stalk of a feather, with Glew, Wax, &c. and then making it endeavour to flie away; for being thereby able to view it in any posture, I collected that the motion of the wing was after this manner. ...[I]t makes many hundreds, if not some thousands of vibrations in a second minute of time. And, if we may be allow'd to ghess by the sound, the wing of a Bee is yet more swift, for the tone is much more acute... Now, if we consider the exceeding quickness of these Animal spirits that must cause these motions, we cannot chuse but admire the exceeding vividness of the governing faculty or Anima of the Insect, which is able to dispose and regulate so the the motive faculties, as to cause every peculiar organ, not onely to move or act so quick, but to do it also so regularly."
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Micrographia
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