hot and dry but if the flesh appeareth white and well coloured it argueth little heat and much moisture The haire beard are a marke also not to be ouerslipped for these two approch very neere to the temperature of the cods And if the haire be very blacke and big and specially from the ribs down to the nauell it deliuereth an infallible token that the cods partake much of hot and dry and if there grow some haire also vpon the shoulders the same is so much the more confirmed But when the haire and beard are of chesse-nut colour soft delicat and thin it inferreth not so great plenty of heat and drinesse in the cods Men very hot and dry are neuer faire saue by miracle but rather hard-fauored and ill shaped for the heat and drinesse as Aristotle affirmeth of the Ethiopians wrieth the proportion of the face and so they become disfigured Contrariwise to be seemly and gratious prooueth a measurable hot and moist for which cause the matter yeelded it selfe obedient whereto nature would employ it Whence it is manifest that much beautie in a man is no token of much heat Touching the signes of a temperat man we haue sufficiently discoursed in the chapter foregoing and therefore it shall not be needfull to reply the same againe It sufficeth only to note that as the Phisitions place in euery degree of heat three degrees of extention so also in a temperat man we are to set down the largenesse and amplenesse of three other And he who standeth in the third next to cold and moist shalbe reputed cold and moyst for when a degree passeth the meane it resembleth the other and that this is true we manifestly find for the signs which Galen deliuereth vs to know a man cold and moist are the selfe same of the temperat man but somewhat more remisse so is he wise of good conditions and vertuous he hath his voice cleare sweet is white skinned of flesh good and supple without haire and if it haue any the same is little and yellow such are very well fauoured and faire of countinaunce but Galen affirmeth that their seed is moist and vnfit for generation these are no great friends to women nor women vnto them What women ought to marrie with what man that they may haue children §. 2. TO a woman who beareth not children when she is married Hippocrates commaundeth that two points of diligence be vsed to know whether it be her defect or that it grow because the seed of her husband is vnable for generation The first is to make her suffumigations with incense or Storax with a garment close wrapped about her which may hang downe on the ground in sort that no vapour or fume may issue out and if within a while after she feele the sauour of the incense in her mouth it yeeldeth a certaine token that the barrennesse commeth not through her defect in as much as the same found the passages of the bellie open wherethrough it pearced vp to the nosthrils and the mouth The second is to take a garlicke head clean pilled and put the same into the bellie what time the woman goeth to sleepe and if the next day she feele in her mouth the sent of the garlicke she is of her selfe fruitful without any default But albeit these two proofs performe the effect which Hippocrates speaketh of namely that the vapour pierce from the inner part vp to the mouth yet the same argueth not an absolute barrennesse in the husband nor an intire fruitfulnesse in the wife but an vnapt corrispondence of both wherethrough she proueth as barren for him as he for her which we see to fall out in dayly experience for the man taking another wife begetteth children and which encreaseth the maruell in such as are not seene in that point of naturall Philosophie is that if these two separat each from other vpon pretence of impotencie and so he take another wife and she another husband it hath bene found that both haue had children And this groweth because there are some men whose generatiue facultie is vnable and not alterable for one woman and yet for another is apt and begetteth issue Euen as we see by experience in the stomacke that to one kind of meat a man hath great appetite and to another though better it is as dead What the correspondence should be which the man wife ought to beare each to other to the end they may bring forth children is expressed by Hippocrates in these words If the hot answer not the cold and the drie the moist with measure and equalitie there can be no generation as if he should say that if there vnite not in the womans wombe two seeds the one hote the other cold and the one moist and the other drie extended in equall degree they cannot beget children For a worke so maruellous as is the shaping of a man standeth in need of a temperature where the hot may not exceed the cold nor the moist the drie For if a mans seed be hot and the womans seed hot likewise there will no engendring succeed This doctrine thus presupposed Let vs now fit by way of example a woman cold and moist in the first degree whose signes we said were to be wily ill conditioned shrill voiced spare fleshed and blacke and greene coloured hairie and euill fauoured she shall easily conceiue by a man that is ignorant of good conditions who hath a well sounding and sweet voice much white and supple flesh little haire and well coloured and faire of countenance She may also be giuē for wife to a temperat man whose seed following the opinion of Galen we said was most fruitfull and answerable to whatsoeuer woman Prouided that she be sound and of age conuenient but yet with all their incidents it is verie difficult for her to conceiue child and being conceiued saith Hippocrates within two months the same miscarieth for she wanteth bloud wherwith to maintain her self and the babe during the 9 months Howbeit this will find an easie remedie if the woman do bath her selfe before she companie with her husband and the baigne must consist of water fresh and warme the which by Hippocrates righteth her temperature to a good sort For it looseneth and moistneth her flesh euen as the earth ought to be alike disposed that the graine may therin fasten it self and gather root Moreouer it worketh a farther effect for it encreaseth the appetite to meat it restraineth resolution causeth a greater quantitie of naturall heat wherthrough plenty of flegmaticke bloud is increased by which the little creature may those nine months haue sustenance The tokens of a woman cold and moist in the third deree are to be dull witted well conditioned to haue a very delicat voice much flesh and the same soft and white to want haire and downe and not to be ouer faire Such a one should be wedded to a man hot and dry in the third
eateth little and yeeldeth store of excrements wherethrough the woman conceiued of a girle is ill fauoured and full of spots and a thousand sluttishnesses sticke vnto her and at the time of her deliuerie she must tarrie so many more daies to purge her selfe than if she had brought a man child to the word On the naturall reason wherof God grounded himselfe when he commanded Moses that the woman who brought forth a male should remain in her bed a weeke and not enter into the temple vntill 33 daies were expired And if she were deliuered of a female she should be vncleane for the space of two weeks and not enter into the temple vntill after 66 daies in sort that when the birth is of a female the time is doubled VVhich so falleth out because in the nine moneths during which the child remained in the mothers wombe through the much cold and moist of her temperature she doubly encreased excrements and the same of verie malignant substance and qualitie which a male infant would not haue done Therfore Hippocrates holdeth it a matter verie perillous to stop the purgation of a woman who is deliuered of a wench All this is spoken to the purpose that we must well aduise our selues of the last day of the moneth to the end the seed may find sufficient nourishment wherwith to relieue itselfe For if the act of procreation be committed so soone as the purgation is finished it will not take hold through defect of bloud VVheron it behooueth the parents be done to vnderstand that if both seeds ioine not togither at one selfe time namely that of the woman and of the man Galen saith there will ensue no conception although the seed of the man be neuer so apt for procreation And hereof we shall render the reason to another purpose This is very certaine that all the diligences by vs prescribed must also be performed on the womans behoofe otherwise her seed euill emploied will mar the conception Therefore it is requisit they attend ech to other so as at one selfe instant both their seedes may ioyne togither This at the first cōming importeth very much for the right cod and his seed vessell as Galen affirmeth is first stirred vp and yeeldeth his seed before the left and if the generation take not effect at the first comming it is a great hap hazard but that at the second a female shalbe begotten These two seeds are knowen first by the heat and coldnesse then by the quantitie of being much or little and finally by the issuing forth speedily or slowly The seed of the right cod commeth forth boiling and so hot as it burneth the womans belly is not much in quantitie and passeth out in hast Contrariwise the seed of the left taketh his way more temperat is much in quantitie and for that the same is cold and grosse spendeth longer space in cōming forth The last consideration was to procure that both the seeds of the husband the wife fall into the right side of the womb for in that place saith Hippocrates are males engēdred females in the left Galen alleageth the reason hereof saying that the right side of the womb is verie hot through the neighbourhood which it holdeth with the liuer with the right side of the raines and with the right seed vessell which members we haue affirmed and approoued to be verie hot And seeing all the reason of working that the issue may become male consisteth in procuring that at the time of conception it partake much heat it falleth out certaine that it greatly importeth to bestow the seed in this place Which the woman shall easily accomplish by resting on her right side when the act of generation is ended with her head down and her heels vp but it behooueth her to keepe her bed a day or two for the womb doth not straightwaies embrace the seeed but after some houres space The signes wherby a woman may know whether she be with child or no are manifest and plain to euery ones vnderstanding for if when she ariseth vpon her feet the seed fall to the ground it is certain saith Galen that she hath not cōceiued albeit herein one point requireth consideration that al the seed is not fruitful or apt for issue for the one part therof is very waterish whose office serueth to make thin the principal seed to the end it may fare through the narrow passages and this is that which nature sendeth forth and it resteth when she hath conceiued with the part apt for issue It is knowen by that it is like water and of like quantitie That a woman rise vp straightwaies on her feet so soon as the act of generation hath passed is a matter verie perillous Therfore Aristotle compelleth that she beforehand make euacuation of the excrements and of her vrine to the end she may haue no cause to rise The second token whereby we may know the same is that the next day following the woman will feele her belly empty especially about the nauell Which groweth for that the womb when it desireth to conceiue becommeth verie large and stretched out for verely it suffereth the like swelling vp and stiffnesse as doth a mans member and when it fareth thus-wise the same occupieth much roome But at the point when it conceiueth saith Hippoorates sodainly the same draweth togither and maketh as it were a purse to draw the seed vnto it and will not suffer it to go out and by this meanes leaueth many emptie places the which women do declare saying that they haue no tripes left in their belly as if they were sodainly become leane Moreouer forthwith they abhorre carnall copulation and their husbands kindnesse for the belly hath now got what it sought but the most certain token saith Hippocrates is when their natural course faileth their breasts grow and when they fall in loathing with mear What diligence is to be vsed that children may prooue wittie and wise §. 4. IF we doe not first know the cause whence it proceedeth that a man of great wit and sufficiencie is begotten it is impossible that the same may be reduced to art for through conioyning and ordering his principles and causes we grow to attaine this end and by none other meanes The Astrologers hold that because the child is borne vnder such an influence of the starres he commeth to be discreet wittie of good or ill maners fortunat and of those other conditions and properties which we see consider euery day in men Which being admitted for true it would follow a matter of impossibilitie to frame the same to any art for it should be wholly a case of fortune and no way placed in mens election The natural Philosophers as Hippocrates Plato Aristotle and Galen hold that a man receiueth the conditions of his soule at the time of his forming and not of his birth for then the starres do superficially alter the child giuing him heat coldnesse moisture and drouth
nature aswell whiles the creature hath been in the mothers womb as after the same was borne wherof the histories are full but some haue held them only for fables because this is mentioned in the Poets yet the thing carrieth meere truth for diuers times nature hath made a female child and she hath so remained in her mothers belly for the space of one or two months and afterwards plentie of heat growing in the genitall members vpon some occasion they haue issued forth and she become a male To whom this transformation hath befallen in the mothers womb is afterwards plainly discouered by certain motions which they retaine vnfitting for the masculin sex being altogither womanish their voice shrill sweet And such persons are enclined to perform womens actions and fall ordinarily into vncouth offences Contrariwise nature hath sundrie times made a male with his genetories outward and cold growing on they haue turned in ward and it became female This is knowen after she is borne for she retaineth a mannish fashion aswell in her words as in all her motions and workings This may seem difficult to be prooued but considering that which many authenticall historians affirme it is a matter not hard to be credited And that women haue been turned into men after they were borne the verie vulgar doe not much maruell to heare spoke of for besides that which sundrie our elders haue laid downe for trueth It befell in Spain but few yeares since and that wherof we find experience is not to be called in question or argument What then the cause may be that the genitall members are engendred within or without and the creature becommeth male or female will fall out a plain case if we once know that heat extendeth and enlargeth all things and cold retaineth and closeth them vp Wherthrough it is a conclusion of all Philosophers and Phisitions that if the seed be cold and moist a woman is begotten and not a man and if the same be hot and dry a man is begotten and not a woman Whence we apparently gather that there is no man who in respect of a woman may be termed cold nor woman hot in respect of a man Aristotle saith it is necessarie for a woman to be cold and moist that she may be likewise fruitfull for if she were not so it would fall out impossible that her monthly course should flow or she haue milke to preserue the child nine months in her belly and two yeares after it is borne but that the same would soone wast and consume All Philosophers and Phisitions auouch that the belly holdeth the same proportion with mans seed that the earth doth with corne and with any other graine And we see that if the earth want coldnesse and moisture the husbandman dareth not sow therein neither will the seed prosper But of soils those are most fruitfull and fertile in rendering fruit which partake most of cold and moist As we see by experience in the regions towards the North As England Flanders and Almaine whose abundance of all fruits worketh astonishment in such as know not the reason thereof And in such countries as these no married woman was euer childlesse neither can they there tell what barrennesse meaneth but are all fruitfull and breed children through their abundance of coldnesse and moisture But though it is true that the woman should be cold and moist for conception Yet she may abound so much therin that it may choke the seed euen as we see excesse of raine spoileth the corne which cannot ripen in ouermuch coldnesse Whereon we must conceiue that these two qualities ought to keep a certaine measurablenesse which when they exceed or reach not vnto the fruitfulnesse is spoiled Hippocrates holdeth that woman for fruitfull whose womb is tempered in such sort as the heat exceedeth not the cold nor the moist the drie VVherethrough he saith that those women who haue their belly cold cannot conceiue no more than such as are very moist or verie cold and dry But so for the same reason that a woman and her genitall parts should be temperat it were impossible that she could conceiue or be a woman For if the seed of which she was first formed had been temperat the genitall members would haue issued forth and she haue been a man So should a beard grow on her chin and her floures surcease and she become as perfect a man as nature could produce Likewise the womb in a woman cannot be predominatly hot For if the seed whereof she was engendred had been of that temperature she should haue been born a man and not a woman This is past all exception that the qualities which yeeld a woman fruitfull are cold and moisture for the nature of man standeth in need of much nourishment that he may be able to vse procreation and continue his kind Wherethrough we see that amongst all the females of brute beasts none haue their monthly courses as a woman Therefore it was requisite to make her altogether cold and moist and that in such a degree as that she might breed much flegmatick bloud and not be able to wast or consume the same I said flegmaticke bloud because this is seruiceable to the breeding of milke by which Hippocrates and Galen auouch the creature is releeued all the time it remaineth in the mothers belly Now if the same should be temperat it would produce much bloud vnfit for the engendring of milke and would wholly resolue as it doth in a temperat man and so nothing be left for nourishing the babe Therefore I hold it for certain and verily it is impossibie that a woman can be temperat or hot but they are all cold and moist And if this be not so let the Philosopher or Phisition tell me for what cause all women are beardlesse and haue their sicknesse whiles they are healthful for what cause the seed of which she was formed being temperat or hot she was borne a woman not a man Howbeit though it be true that they are alcold moist yet it followeth not that they are all in one degree of coldnesse and moisture For some are in the first some in the second and some in the third and in ech of these they may conceiue if a man answere them in proportion of heat as shall hereafter be expressed By what tokens we may know these three degrees of coldnesse and moisture in a woman and likewise weet who is in the first who is in the second and who in the third there is no Philosopher or Phisition that as yet hath vnfolded But considering the effects which these qualities do worke in women we may part them by reason of their being extended and so we shall easily get notice hereof The first by the wit and habilitie of the woman The second by her maners and conditions The third by her voice big or small The fourth by her flesh much or little The fifth by her colour
are some effectes which must be imputed to God immediatly as are those which come besides the order of nature and others by the way of meanes reckoning first as a meane the causes which are ordained to that end The countrey which the Scythians inhabited saith Hippocrates is seated vnder the North a region moist and cold beyond measure where through abundance of clouds it seemes a miracle if you see the sunne The rich men sit euer on horsebacke neuervse any exercise eat and drink more than their naturall heat can consume all which things make the seed cold and moist And for this cause they beget manie females and if anie male were borne they prooued of the condition which we haue specified Know you said Hippocrates to them that the remedie hereof consisteth not in sacrifising to God neither in doing ought like that but it behooueth withall that you walke on foot eat little and drink lesse and not so wholly betake your selues to your pleasures And that you may the more plainly discerne it looke vpon the poore people of this countrie your very slaues who not onely make no sacrifices to your God neither offer him gifts as wanting the means but euen blaspheme his blessed name and speake iniuriously of him because he hath placed them in such estate And yet though so lewd and sacrilegious they are very able for procreation the most part of their children proue males strong not cocknies not Eunuchs not Hermafrodites as do those of yours And the cause is for that they eat litle vse much exercise neither keep thēselues alwais on horsback like their masters By which occasiō they make their seed hot dry and therthrough engender males and not females This point of Philosophy was not vnderstood by Pharao nor by his councell seeing that he said in this manner Come let vs keepe them downe with oppression that they may not multiply nor ioyne with our enemie if warre be raised against vs. And the remedie which he vsed to hinder that the people of Israel should not encrease so fast or at least that so many male children might not be borne which he most feared was to keepe them vnder with much toile of body and to cause them for to eat leeks garlicke and onions which remedie tooke but a bad effect as the holy scripture expresseth for the harder he held them oppressed the more did they encrease and multiply Yet he making reckoning that this was the surest way he could follow doubled this their affliction of body VVhich preuailed so litle as if to quench a great fire he should throw thereinto much oile or grease but if he or any of his counsellors had been seen in this point of naturall Philosophy he should haue giuen them barly bread lettice melons cucūbers citrons to eat and haue kept them well fed and well filled with drinke and not haue suffered them to take anie paine For by this means their seed would haue become cold and moist therof more women than men bin begotten and in short time their life haue been abridged But feeding them with much flesh boiled with garlicke with leeks with onions and tasking them to work so hard he caused their seed to wax hot and drie by which two qualities they were the more incited to procreation and euerbred issue male For confirmation of this veritie Aristotle propoundeth a probleme which saith VVhat is the cause that those who labor much and such as are subiect to the feuer Ecticke suffer many pollutions in their sleepe whereto verely he wist not to shape an answer for he telleth many things but none of them hit the truth The right reason hereof is that the toile of the body and the Ecticke feuer do heat and dry the seed and these two qualities make the same tart pricking and for that in sleep all the naturall powers are fortified this betideth which the probleme speaketh of How fruitfull and pricking the hot and drie seed is Galen noteth in these words The same is most fruitfull and soon inciteth the creature to copulation and is lecherous and prone to lust The fourth condition was not to accompany in the act of generation vntill the seed were setled concocted and dulie seasoned for though the three former diligences haue gone before yet we cannot thereby know whether it haue attained that perfection which it ought to haue Principally it behooueth for 7 or 8 daies before to vse the meats which we haue prescribed to the end the cods may haue time to consume in their nourishment the seed which all that time was engendred of the other meats and that this which we thus go describing may succeed The like diligence is to be vsed touching mans seed that the same may be fruitfull and apt for issue as the gardeners doe with the seeds which they will preserue for they attend till they ripen and clense and wax drie for if they plucke them from the stalke before they are deeply seasoned and arriued to the point which is requisit though they lie in the ground a whole yeare they will not grow at all For this reason I haue noted that in places where much carnall copulation is vsed there is lesse store of children than where people are more enclined to continencie And common harlots neuer conceiue because they stay not till the seed be digested and ripened It behooueth therefore to abide for some daies that the seed may settle concoct and ripen and be duly seasoned for by this meanes is hot and drie and the good substance which it had lost the better recouered But how shall we know the seed to be such as is requisit it should be seeing the matter is of so great importance This may easily be known if certaine daies haue passed since the man companied with his wife and by his continuall incitement and great desire of copulation all which springeth for that the seed is grown fruitfull and apt for procreation The fifth condition was that a man should meddle with his wife in the carnal act six or seuen daies before she haue her naturall course for that the child straightwaies standeth in need of much food to nourish it And the reason hereof is that the hot and drie of his temperature spendeth and consumeth not onely the good bloud of the mother but also the excrements VVherethrough Hippocrates said that the woman conceiued of a male is well coloured and faire Which groweth because the infant through his much heat consumeth all those excrements which are woont to disfigure the face leauing the same as a washed cloth And for that this is true it is behoofull that the infant be supplied with bloud for his nourishment And this experience manifesteth for it is a miracle that a male child should be engendered saue vpon the last daies of the month The contrarie befalleth when a woman goeth with a female for through the much cold and moist of her sex she
concocted Therefore nature prouided that in the engendring of a creature two seedes should concurre which being mingled the mightier should make the forming and the other serue for nourishment And this is seen euidently so to be for if a blackamore beget a white woman with child a white man a negro woman of both these vnions wil be borne a creature partaking of either qualitie Out of this doctrin I gather that to be true which many authenticall histories affirm that a dog carnally companying with a woman made her to conceiue and the like did a beare with another woman whom he found alone in the fields And likewise an ape had two yong ones by another We read also of one who walking for recreation alongst a riuers side a fish came out of the water and begat her with child The matter herein of most difficulty for the vulgar to cōceiue is how it may be that these women should bring forth perfect men and partakers of the vse of reason seeing the parents who engendred them were brute beasts To this I answer that the seed of euery of these womē was the agent former of the creature as the greaterin force whence it figured the same with his accidents of mans shape The seed of the brute beast as not equall in strength serued for aliment for nothing els And that the seede of these vnreasonable beasts might yeeld nourishment to mans seed is a matter easie to be conceiued For if any of these women had eaten a peece of bears flesh or of a dog boiled or rosted she should haue receiued nourishment thereout though not so good as if she had eaten mutton or partridges The like befalleth to mans seed that his true nourishment in the forming of the creature is another mans seed but if this be wanting the seed of some brute beast may supply the roome but a thing which these histories specifie is that children borne of such copulations giue token in their maners and conditions that their engendring was not naturall Out of the things already rehearsed though we haue somewhat lingered by the way therein we may now gather the answere to that principall probleme vz that wise mens children are wel-neere alwaies formed of their mothers seed for that of the fathers for the reasons alreadie alleaged is not fruitfull for generation and in engendring serueth only for aliment And the man who is shaped of the womans seed cannot be wittie nor partake abilitie through the much cold and moist of that sex Whence it becommeth manifest that when the child prooueth discreet and prompt the same yeeldeth an infallible token that he was formed of his fathers seed And if he shew blockish and vntoward we inferre that he was formed of the seed of his mother And hereto did the wise-man allude when he said The wise sonne reioyceth the father but a foolish child is a griefe to his mother It may also come to passe vpō some occasion that the seed of a woman may be the agent and form-giuer that of the woman serue for nourishment but the son so begotten will prooue of slender capacitie for put case that cold and dry be two qualities whereof the vnderstanding hath need yet it behooueth that they hold a certaine quantitie and measure which once exceeded they doe rather hurt than good Euen as we see men very aged that by occasion of ouermuch cold and dry we find them become children a new and vtter many follies Let vs then presuppose that to some old man there yet remaine ten yeares of life with conuenient cold and dry to discourse in such sort as these being expired he shall then grow a babe againe If of such a ones seed a son be engendred he shall till ten yeares age make shew of great sufficiencie for that til then he enioyeth the conuenient cold and drouth of his father but at eleuen yeares old he will sodainly quaile away for that he hath out-passed the point which to these two qualities was behooffull VVhich we see confirmed by daily experience in children begotten in old age who in their childhood are verie aduised and afterwards in mans state prooue verie dullards short of life And this groweth because they were made of a seed cold and dry which had alreadie out run the one half of his race And if the father be wise in the works of the imagination and by means of his much heat drinesse take to wife a woman cold and moist in the third degree the sonne born of such an accouplement shalbe most vntoward if he be formed of his fathers seed for that he made abode in a belly so cold and moist was maintained by a bloud so distemperat The contrary betideth when the father is vntoward whose seed hath ordinarily heat and excessiue moisture The sonne so engendred shalbe dull til 15 yeares of age for that he drew part of his fathers superfluous moisture But the course of that age once spent it giueth firmnesse in asmuch as the foolish mans seed is more temperat and lesse moist It aideth likewise the wit to continue nine moneths space in a belly of so little coldnesse and moisture as is that of a woman cold and moist in the first degree where it endured hunger and want All this ordinarily befalleth for the reasons by vs specified but there is found a certaine sort of men whose genitories are endowed with such force and vigour as they vtterly spoile the aliments of their good qualities and conuert them into their euill and grosse substance Therefore all the children whom they beget though they haue eaten delicat meats shall prooue rude and dullards Others contrariwise vsing grosse meats and of euill temperature are so mightie in ouercomming them that though they eat or porcke yet they make children of very delicat wit Whence it prooueth certain that there are linages of foolish men races of wise men and others who of ordinarie are borne blunt and void of iudgement Some doubts are encountred by those who seeke to pearce into the bottom of this matter whose answer in the doctrin forepassed is very easie The first is whence it springeth that bastard children accustomably resemble their fathers and of a 100 lawfull 90 beare the figure and conditions of the mother The second why bastard children prooue ordinarily deliuer couragious and very aduised The third what the cause is that if a common strumpet conceiue she neuer looseth her burden though she take venomous drenches to destroy the same or be let much bloud whereas if a married woman be with child by her husband vpon euery light occasion the same miscarrieth To the first Plato answereth saying that no man is nought of his owne proper and agreeable will vnlesse he be first incited by the vitiousnesse of his temperature And he giues vs an example in lecherous men who for that they are stored with plentifull and fruitfull seed suffer great illusions and manie
would giue a token of the good disposition of the brain he affirmeth that a subtile wit sheweth that the braine is framed of subtile and very delicat parts and if the vnderstanding be dull it giues euidence of a grosse substance but he makes no mention of the temperature These conditions the braine ought to be endewed withall to the end the reasonable soule may therethrough shape his reasons and syllogismes But here encounters vs a difficultie very great and this is that if we open the head of any beast we shall find his braine composed with the same forme and manner as a mans without that any of the fore-reported conditions will be failing Whence we gather that the brute beasts haue also the vse of Prudence and reason by means of the composition of their braine or else that our reasonable soule serues not it selfe of this member for the vse of his operations which may not be auouched To this doubt Galen answereth in this manner Amongst the kinds of beasts it is doubted whether that which is termed vnreasonable be altogether void of reason or not For albeit the same want that which consists in voice which is named speech yet that which is conceiued in the soule and termed discourse of this it may be that all sorts of beasts are partakers albeit the same is bestowed more sparingly vpon some and more largely on other some But verely how far man in the way of reason outgoeth all the rest there is none who maketh question By these words Galen giues vs to vnderstand albeit with some fearfulnesse that brute beasts do partake reason one more and another lesse and in their mind do frame some syllogisines and discourses though they cannot vtter them by way of speech And then the difference betweene them and man consisteth in being more reasonable and in vsing Prudence with greater perfection The same Galen prooues also by many reasons and experiments that Asses being of all brute beasts the bluntest do ariue with their wit to the most curious and nice points which were deuised by Plato and Aristotle and there on he collects saying I am therefore so far from praysing the antient Philosophers in that they haue found out some ample matter and of rare inuention as when they say We must hold that there is selfe and diuers one and not one not only in number but also in kind as I dare boldly affirme that euen the very Asses who notwithstanding seeme most blockish of all beasts haue this from nature This selfe same meant Aristotle when he enquired the cause Why man amongst all liuing creatures is wisest and in another place he turnes to doubt For what cause man is the most vniust of all liuing creatures in which he giues vs to vnderstand the selfe same which Galen sayd That the difference which is found between man and brute beast is the selfe same which is found betweene a foole and a wise man which is nought else than in respect of the more and the lesse This truly is not to be doubted that brute beasts enioy memorie and imagination and another power which resembles vnderstanding as the Ape is very like a man and that his soule takes vse of the composition of the braine it is a matter apparant which being good and such as is behooffull performes his workes very wel and with much prudence and if the braine be ill instrumentalized it executes the same vntowardly For which cause we see that there be asses which in their knowledge are properly such and others againe are found so quicke conceipted and malicious that they passe the propertie of their kind And amongst horses are found many iadishnesses and good qualities and some there are more trainable than the rest all which growes from hauing their braine well or ill instrumentalized The reason and solution of this doubt shall be placed in the chapter which followeth for there we returne to reason anew of this matter There are in the body some other parts from whose temperature as well the wit as the braine depend of which we will reason in the last chapter of this worke But besides these and the braine there is found in the body another substance whose seruice the reasonable soule vseth in his operations and so requireth the three last qualities which we haue assigned to the braine that is quantitie sufficient delicate substance and good temperature These are the vitall spirits and arteriall blood which go wandring through the whole body and remaine euermore vnited to the imagination following his contemplation The office of this spirituall substance is to stir vp the powers of man and to giue them force and vigour that they may be able to worke This shall euidently be knowne to be their manner if we take consideration of the motions of the imaginations and of that which after succeeds in working For if a man begin to imagine vpon any iniurie that hath bene profered him the blood of the arteries runs sodainly to the heart and stirs vp the wrathfull part and giues the same heat and forces for reuenge If a man stand contemplating any faire woman or stay in giuing receiuing by that imaginatiō touching the venerious act these vitall spirits run foorthwith to the genitall members and raise them to the performance The like befals when we remember any delicat and sauourie meat which once called to mind they straight abandon the rest of the body and flie to the stomacke and replenish the mouth with water And this their motion is so swift that if a woman with child long for any meat whatsoeuer and still retaine the same in her imagination we see by experience that she looseth her burthen if speedily it be not yeelded vnto her The naturall reason of this is because these vitall spirits before the woman conceiued this longing made abode in the bellie helping her there to retaine the creature and through this new imagination of eating they hie to the stomacke to raise the appetite and in this space if the belly haue no strong retentiue it cannot sustaine the same and so by this means she leeseth her burthen Galen vnderstanding this condition of the vitall spirits counsaileth Phisitions that they giue not sicke folke to eat when their humors are raw and vpon digestion for when they first feele the meat in the stomacke they straightwaies abandon the worke about which before they were occupied and come thervnto to helpe it The like benefit and ayd the braine receiues of these vitall spirits when the reasonable soule is about to contemplat vnderstand imagine or performe actions of memorie without which it cannot worke And like as the grosse substance of the braine and his euill temperature brings the wit to confusion so the vitall spirits and the arteriall blood not being delicat and of good temperature hinder in a man his discourse and vse of reason Wherefore Plato sayd That the supplenesse and good temperature of the heart makes the
The sixth by her haire The seuenth by her fairenesse or foulnesse As touching the first we may know that though it be true as tofore we haue prooued that the wit and abilitie of a woman followeth the temperature of the brain and of none other member yet her womb and cods are of so great force and vigour to alter the whole body that if these be hot and dry or cold and moist or of whatsoeuer other temperature the other partes saith Galen will be of the same tenour but the member which most partaketh the alterations of the belly all Phisitions say is the brain though they haue not set down the reason wheron they ground this correspondencie True it is Galen prooueth by experience that by speying a Sow she becommeth faire and fat and her flesh verie sauory and if she haue her cods she tasteth little better than dogs flesh VVherby we conceiue that the belly and the cods carrie great efficacie to communicat their temperature to all the other parts of the body especially to the brain for that the same is cold moist like themselues Between which through the resemblance the passage is easie Now if we conclude that cold and moist are the qualities which worke an impairement in the reasonable part and that his contraries namely hot and drie giue the same perfection and encreasement we shall find that the woman who sheweth much wit and sufficiencie partaketh of cold and moist in the first degree and if she be verie simple it yeeldeth a signe that she is in the third the partaking between which two extreames argueth the second degree for to thinke that a woman can be hot and drie or endowed with a wit and abilitie conformable to these two qualities is a verie great error because if the seed of which she was formed had been hot and dry in their domination she should haue been born a man and not a woman But in that it was could and moist she was born a woman and not a man The truth of this doctrine may cleerely be discerned if you consider the wit of the first woman who liued in the world for God hauing fashioned her with his own hands and that very accomplished and perfect in her sex it is a conclusion infallibly true that she was possessed of much lesse knowledge than Adam which the diuell well weeting got him to tempt her and durst not fall in disputation with the man fearing his great wit and wisdome Now to say that Eue for her offence was reft that knowledge which she wanted cannot be auouched for as yet she had not offended So then this defect of wit in the first woman grew for that she was by God created cold and moist which temperature is necessarie to make a woman fruitfull and apt for childbirth but enemy to knowledge and if he had made her temperat like Adam she should haue been very wise but nothing fruitful nor subiect to her monthly courses saue by some supernaturall meanes On this nature S. Paul grounded himselfe when he said Let a woman learne in silence with all subiection neither would he allow the woman to teach or gouerne the man but to keep silence But this is true when a woman hath not a spirit or greater grace than her own naturall disposition but if she obtaine any gift from aboue she may wel teach and speake for we know that the people of Israel being oppressed and besieged by the Assirians Iudith a very wise woman sent for the Priests of the Cabeits and Carmits and reprooued them saying How can it be endured that Osias should say if within fiue daies there come no succour he will yeeld the people of Israel to the Assirians see you not that these words rather prouoke God to wrath than to mercie how may it be that men should point out a limited time for the mercy of God and in their mind assigne a day at which he must succour and deliuer them And in the conclusion of this reproofe she told them in what sort they might please God and obtaine their demand And no lesse Elbora a woman of no lesse wisdome taught the people of Israel how they should render thanks vnto God for the great victories which she had attained against their enemies But whilst a woman abideth in her naturall disposition all sorts of learning and wisdome carrieth a kind of repugnancie to her wit And for this cause the Catholicke Church vpon great reason hath forbidden that no woman do preach confesse or instruct for their sex admitteth neither wisdome nor discipline It is discouered also by the maners of a woman and by her condition in what degree of cold and moist her temperature consisteth for if with a sharp wit she be froward curst wayward she is in the first degree of cold and moist it being true as we haue proued tofore that an ill condition euermore accompanieth a good imagination She who partaketh this degree of cold moist suffereth nothing to escape her hands noteth all things findeth fault with all things and so is insupportable Such are accustomably of amiable conuersation and feare not to looke men in the face nor hold him ill mannered who maketh loue vnto them But on the other side to be a woman of good conditions and to be agreeued at nothing to laugh vpon euery small occasiō to let things passe as they come and to sleep soundly descrieth the third degree of cold and moist for much pleasantnesse of conceit is ordinarily accompanied with little wit She who partaketh of these two extreams standeth in the second degree A voice hoarse big and sharp saith Galen is a token of much heat and drouth and we haue also prooued it heretofore by the opinion of Aristotle wherthrough we may gain this notice that if a woman haue a voice like a man she is cold and moist in the first degree and if very delicat in the third And partaking betwixt both the extreames she shall haue the naturall voice of a woman and be in the second degree How much the voice dependeth on the temperature of the cods shall shortly hereafter be prooued where we entreat of the tokens appertaining to a man Much flesh also in women is a signe of much cold and moist for to be fat and big say the Phisitions groweth in liuing creatures from this occasion And contrariwise to be leane and dry is a token of little coldnesse moisture To be meanly fleshed that is neither ouermuch nor verie little giueth euidence that a woman holdeth her selfe in the second degree of cold and moist Their pleasantnesse and curtesies sheweth the degrees of these two qualities much moisture maketh their flesh supple and little rough and hard The meane is the commendablest part The colour also of the face and of the other parts of the body discouereth the extended or remisse degrees of these two qualities When the woman is verie white it boadeth saith Galen much cold
but not his substance wherin the whole life relieth as do the foure elements fire aire earth and water who not only yeeld to the party composed heat cold moisture and drinesse but also the substance which may maintain and preserue the same qualities during all the course of life Wherethrough that which most importeth in the engendring of children is to procure that the elements wherof they are compounded may partake the qualities which are requisite for the wit For these according to the waight and measure by which they enter into the composition must alwaies so indure in the mixture and not the alterations of heauen What these elements are and in what sort they enter into the womans wombe to forme the creature Galen declareth and affirmeth them to be the same which compound all other natural things but that the earth commeth lurking in the accustomed meates which we eate as are flesh bread fish and fruits the water in the liquors which we drinke The aire and fire he saith are mingled by order of nature and enter into the body by way of the pulse and of respiration Of these foure elements mingled and digested by our naturall heat are made the two necessarie principles of the infants generation to weet the seed and the monthly course But that whereof we must make greatest reckoning for the end which we enquire after are the accustomable meats whereon we feed for these shut vp the foure elements in themselues and from these the seed fetcheth more corpulencie and qualitie than from the water which we drinke or the fire and aire which we breath in VVhence Galen saith that the parents who would beget wise children should read three books which he wrot of the facultie of the alements for there they should find with what kinds of meat they may effect the same And he made no mention of the water nor of the other elements as materials and of like moment But herein he swarued from reason for the water altereth the body much more than the aire much lesse than the sound meats wheron we feed And as touching that which concerneth the engendring of the seed it carrieth as great importance as all the other elemēts togither The reason is as Galen himself affirmeth because the cods draw from the veines for their nourishment the wheyish part of the bloud and the greatest part of this whey which the veins receiue partaketh of the water which we drinke And that the water worketh more alteration in the bodie than the aire Aristotle prooueth where he demandeth what the cause is that by changing of waters we breed so great an alteration in our health wheras if we breath a contrarie aire we perceiue it not And to this he answereth that water yeeldeth nourishment to the body and so doth not the aire But he had little reason to answer after this maner for the aire also by Hippocrates opinion giueth nourishment and substance aswell as the water Wher-through Aristotle deuised a better answer saying that no place nor country hath his peculiar aire for that which is now in Flanders when the North wind bloweth passeth within two or three daies into Affricke and that in Affricke by the South is carried into the North and that which this day is in Hierusalem the East wind driueth into the VVest Indies The which cannot betide in the waters for they do not all issue out of the same soile wher-through euery people hath his particular water cōformable to the Mine of the earth where it springeth and whence it runneth And if a man be vsed to drinke one kind of water in tasting another he altereth more than by meat or aire In sort that the parents who haue a will to beget verie wise children must drinke waters delicat fresh and of good temperature otherwise they shall commit error in their procreation Aristotle saith that at the time of generation we must take heed of the South-west wind for the same is grosse and moistneth the seed so as a female and not a male is begotten But the west wind he highly commendeth and aduanceth it with names and titles very honourable He calleth the same temperat fatter of the earth and saith that it commeth from the Elisian fields But albeit it be true that it greatly importeth to breath an aire verie delicat and of good temperature and to drinke such waters yet it standeth much more vpon to vse fine meats appliable to the temperature of the wit for of these is engēdred the bloud and the seed and of the seed the creature And if the meat be delicat and of good temperature such is the bloud made and of such bloud such seed and of such seed such braine Now this member being temperat and compounded of a substance subtile and delicat Galen saith that the wit will be like therunto for our reasonable soule though the same be incorruptible yet goeth alwaies vnited with the dispositions of the brain which being not such as it is requisit they should be for discoursing and philosophizing a man saith and doth 1000 things which are verie vnfitting The meats then which the parents are to feed on that they may engender children of great vnderstanding which is the ordinarie wit for Spaine are first White bread made of the finest meale and seasoned with salt this is cold and dry and of parts verie subtile and delicat There is another sort made saith Galen of reddish graine which though it nourish much and make men big limmed and of great bodily forces yet for that the same is moist and of grosse parts it breedeth a losse in the vnderstanding I said seasoned with salt because none of all the aliments which a man vseth bettereth so much the vnderstanding as doth this minerall It is cold and of more drinesse than any other thing and if I remember well the sentence of Heraclitus he said after this maner A drie brightnesse a wisest minde Then seeing that salt is so drie and so appropriat to the wit the scripture had good reason to terme it by the name of Prudence and Sapience Partridges and Francolini haue a like substance and the selfe temperature with bread of white meale and Kid and Muskadel wine And if parents vse these meats as we haue aboue specified they shall breed children of great vnderstanding And if they would haue a child of great memorie let them eight or nine daies before they betake themselues to the act of generation eat Trouts Salmons Lampries and Eeles by which meat they shall make their seed verie moist and clammie These two qualities as I haue said before make the memorie easie to receaue and verie fast to preserue the figures a long time By Pigions Goats Garlicke Onions Leekes Rapes Pepper Vinegar White-wine Honny and al other sorts of spices the seed is made hot and drie and of parts verie subtile and delicat The child who is engendred of such meat shalbe of great imagination but not of
the creature is not formed al so soon as the mans seed falleth into the womans wombe but affirmeth that thirtie or fortie daies are requisit ere the same can be accomplished And if this be so what auaileth it that the father go imagining of diuers things in the carnall act when as the forming beginneth not vntill some daies after especially when the forming is not made by the soule of the father or the mother but by a third thing which is found in the seed it selfe And the same being only vegetatiue and no more is not capable of the imagination but followeth only the motions of the temperature and doth nothing els After my mind to say that mens children are borne of so diuers figures through the variable imaginations of the parents is none other than to auouch that of grains some grow big and some little because the husband-man when he sowed them was distraught into sundry imaginations Vpon this so vnsound opinion of Aristotle some curious heads argue that the children of the adulterous wife resemble her husband though they be none of his And the reason which leadeth them is manifest for during the carnall act the adulterers settle their imagination vpon the husband with feare least he come and take them napping And for the same consideration they conclude that the husbands children resemble the adulterer though they be not his because the adulterous wife during the copulation with her husband alwaies busieth her selfe in contemplation of the figure of her louer And those who say that the other woman brought forth a blacke sonne because she held her imagination fixed on the picture of a blacke man must also graunt this which by these queint braines is inferred for the whole carrieth one selfe reason and is in my conceit a starcke leasing and very mockerie though it be groūded on the opinion of Aristotle Hippocrates answered this probleme better when he said that the Scythians are all alike conditioned and shaped in visage and rendereth the reason of this resemblance to be for that they all fed of one selfe meat and dranke of one selfe water went apparrelled after one selfe maner and kept one selfe order in all things For the same cause the brute beastes engender yong ones after their particular resemblance because they alwaies vse the same food and haue there-through an vniforme seede But contrariwise man because he eateth diuers meates euerie day maketh a different seed aswell in substance as in temperature The which the naturall Philosophers doe approoue in answering to a probleme that saith What is the cause that the excrementes of brute beastes haue not so vnpleasant a verdure as those of mankind And they affirme that brute beastes vse alwaies the selfe meates and much exercise there withall but a man eateth so much meate and of so diuers substance as he cannot come away with them and so they grow to corrupt Mans seed and that of beasts hold one selfe reason and consideration for that they are both of them excrements of a third concoction As touching the varietie of meats which man vseth it cannot be denied but must be graunted that of euery aliment there is made a different and particular seed VVhere it falleth out apparent that the day on which a man eateth beefe or bloudings he maketh a grosse seed of bad temperature and therefore the sonne begotten therof shalbe disfigured foolish blacke and ill conditioned And if he eat the carcas of a capon or of a henne his seed shall be white delicat and of good temperature VVherthrough the sonne so engendred shalbe faire wise and verie gentle conditioned From hence I collect that there is no child born who partaketh not of the qualities and temperature of that meat which his parents fed vpon a day before he was begottē And if any would know of what meat he was formed let him but consider with what meat his stomacke hath most familiaritie and without all doubt that it was Moreouer the naturall philosophers demand what the cause is that the children of the wisest men do ordinarily prooue blockish and void of capacitie To which probleme they answer verie fondly saying that wise men are verie honest and shamefast and therefore in companying with their wiues doe abstaine from some diligences necessarie for effecting that the child prooue of that perfection which is requisite And they confirme this by example of such parents as are foolish and ignorant who because they employ all their force and diligence at the time of generation their children doe all prooue wise and wittie but this answer tokeneth they are slenderly seene in naturall Philosophy True it is that for rendering an answere conuenient it behooueth first to presuppose and prooue certaine points one of which purporteth that the reasonable facultie is contrarie to the wrathfull and the concupiscible in sort that if a man be verie wise he cannot beverie couragious of much bodily forces a great feeder nor verie able for procreation for the naturall dispositions which are requisite to the end the reasonable soule may performe his operations carrie a contrarietie to those which are necessarie for the wrathfull and the concupiscible Aristotle saith and it is true that hardinesse and naturall courage consist in heate and Prudence and Sapience in cold and drie VVhence we see by plaine experience that the valientest persons are void of reason spare of speach impatient to be ieasted withall and verie soone ashamed for remedie whereof they straightwaies set hand on their sword as not weeting what other answer to make But men endowed with wit haue many reasons and quicke answeres and quippes with which they entertaine the time that they may not come to blowes Of such a manner of wit Salust noteth that Cicero was telling him that he had much tongue and feet verie light wherein he had reason for so great a wisedome in matters of armes could not end but in cowardise And hence tooke a certaine nipping prouerbe his originall which saith He is as valiant as Cicero and as wise as Hector Namely when we will note a man to be a buzzard and a cow-babie No lesse doth the naturall faculty gainsay the vnderstanding for if a man possesse great bodily forces he cannot enioy a good wit and the reason is for that the force of the arms and the legges springeth from hauing a braine hard and earthly and though it be true that by reason of the cold and drie of the earth he might partake a good vnderstanding yet in that it hath his composition of a grosse substance it ruinateth and endammageth the same For through his coldnesse the courage and hardinesse are quenched wherethrough we haue seene some men of great forces to be verie cowardes The contrarietie which the vegetatiue soule hath with the reasonable is most manifest of all others for his operations namely to nourish and engender are better performed with heat and moisture than with the contrarie qualities Which experience cleerely manifesteth considering
also to eat to drinke and to sleepe and if a will take him to send foorth anie excrement he dares not say it or do it but with cumber shamefastnesse and so gets him to some secret place out of sight Yea we find men so shamefast as though they haue a great will to make water yet cannot do it if any looke vpon them whereas if we leaue them alone straight-waies the vrine taketh his issue And these are the appetites to send foorth the superfluous things of the body which if they were not effected men should die and that much sooner than with forbearing meat or drink And if there be any saith Hippocrates who speaketh or actuateth this in the presence of another he is not maister of his sound iudgement Galen affirmeth that the seed holdeth the semblable proportion with the seed-vessels as the vrine doth with the bladder for as much vrine annoieth the bladder so much seed endammageth the seed vessels And the opinion which Aristotle held in denieng that man and woman incur no infirmitie or death by retaining of seed is contrarie to the iudgement of all Phisitions and especially of Galen who saith and auoucheth that many women remaining widowes in their youth haue therthrough lost their sense motion breathing and finally their life And the selfe Aristotle reckoneth vp many diseases whereunto continēt persons are subiect in that behalfe The true answer of this probleme cannot be yeelded in naturall Philosophie because it is not marshalled vnder her iurisdiction for it behooueth to passe to an higher namely Metaphisicke wherein Aristotle saith that the reasonable soule is the lowest of all the intelligences and for that it partaketh of the same generall nature with the Angels it shameth to behold it selfe placed in a body which hath fellowship with brute beasts wherethrough the diuine scripture noteth it as a mysterie that the first man being naked was not ashamed but so soone as he saw himselfe to be so forthwith he got a couering At which time he knew that through his owne fault he had lost immortality and that his body was become subiect to alteration and corruption and those instruments and parts giuen him for that of necessitie he must die and leaue an other in his roome and that to preserue himselfe in life that small space which rested it behooued him to eat and drinke and to expell those noisome and corrupt excrements And principally he shamed seeing that the Angels with whom he had competence were immortall and stood not in need of eating drinking or sleeping for preseruation of their life neither had the instruments of generation but were created all at once without matter and without feare of corrupting Of all these points were the eies and the eares naturally done to ware Wherethrough the reasonable soule groweth displeased and ashamed that these things giuen man to make him mortall and corruptible are thus brought to his memory And that this is a well fitting answere we euidently perceiue for God to content the soule after the vniuersall iudgement and to bestow vpon him intire glory will cause that his body shall partake the properties of an Angell bestowing therupon subtlenesse lightnesse immortalitie and brightnesse for which reason he shal not stand in need to eat or drink as the brute beasts And when men shall thus-wise dwell in heauen they will not shame to behold themselues clothed with flesh euen as Christ our redeemer and his mother nothing shamed thereat But it will breed an accidentall glory to see that the vse of those parts which were wont to offend the hearing and the eies is now surceased I therefore making due reckoning of this naturall modestie of the eare haue endeuoured to salue the hard and rough termes of this matter and to fetch certain not ill pleasing biasses of speech and where I cannot throughly performe it the honest reader shall affoord me pardon For to reduce to a perfect maner the art which must be obserued to the end men may proue of rare capacities is one of the things most requisit for the common-wealth Besides that by the same reason they shal proue vertuous prompt sound and long lyued I haue thought good to seuer the matter of this chapter into foure principall parts that thereby I may make plaine what shalbe deliuered and that the reader may not rest in confusion The first is to shew the naturall qualities and temperature which man woman ought to possesse to the end they may vse generation The second what diligence the parents ought to employ that their children may be male and not female The third how they may become wise and not fooles The fourth how they are to be dealt withall after their birth for preseruation of their wit To come then to the first point we haue alreadie alleaged that Plato laieth downe how in a well ordered common-wealth there ought to be assigned certain surueiors of marriages who by art might skill to looke into the qualities of the persons that are to be married and to giue ech one the wife which answereth him in proportion to euery wife her cōuenient husband In which matter Hippocrates and Galen began to take some pains and prescribed certain precepts and rules to know what woman is fruitful and who can beare no children and what man is vnable for generation and who able and likely to beget issue But touching all this they vttered verie little and that not with such distinction as was behooffull at least for the purpose which I haue in hand Therefore it falleth out necessarie to begin the art euen from his principles and briefly to giue the same his due order and concert that we so may make plaine and apparant from what vnion of parents wise children issue and from what fools and do-noughts To which end it behooueth first to know a particular point of Philosophy which although in regard of the practises of the art it be verie manifest and true yet the vulgar make little reake therof And from the notice of this dependeth all that which as touching this first point is to be deliuered and that is that man though it seem otherwise in the composition which we see is different from a woman in nought els saith Galen than only in hauing his genitall members without his body For if we make anotomie of a woman we shall find that she hath within her two stones two vessels for seed and her belly of the same frame as a mans member without that any one part is therin wanting And this is so very true that if when nature hath finished to forme a man in all perfection she would conuert him into a woman there needeth nought els to be done saue only to turne his instruments of generation inwards And if she haue shaped a woman and would make a man of her by taking forth her belly and her cods it would quickly be performed This hath chanced many times in