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CHAP. VI. Remarks upon COPULATION.

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Supposing now this amicable Engagement of Nature to be over, I may be modestly allow’d (I hope) to add a few Words upon its necessary Consequences; and First, of what has happen’d in the Act, Retention, and Conception following.

FIRST then, If the Woman has contributed most Seminal Matter, it may reasonably be concluded, that the Child will favour the Mother most: If the Man predominantly, the Father: If Both equally, it will resemble Both, or in part the Father, and partly the Mother.

AND according to Anaxagoras, if the Seed has flown into the Right Side of the Womb, from the Right Rein of the Man, a Male will be conceiv’d; if into the Left, from the Left Rein, a Female; by reason of the Frigidity and Humidity of that Place. Which Notion may seem probable; considering, that tho’ the Womb has but one Cavity, yet it has two Sinuses^[40] for conceiving the Two different Sexes: As Nature has in other Respects accordingly given the Woman two Breasts.

LACTANTIUS also observes^[41], That, if peradventure a Male should be conceiv’d of the Seed fallen to the left Side, the Place destinated for the Female, he will make but a Semivirile Man; distinguishable by some Womanish Qualities, such as a weak or tender Heart, small Voice, a smooth, or unbearded Face, &c: And so, on the contrary, if a Female should be conceiv’d of the Seed fallen to the right Side, she will have some distinguishable Marks of Virility; such as a large Stature, robust Members, dusky Colour, rough hairy Face, coarse Voice, &c: And that because the Conception happen’d in that Place, which Nature had appropriated to the Male.

THIS likewise seems to be the best Reason which may be given why some Women, like Hector’s Wife, mentioned in Homer’s Iliads, are naturally inclin’d to intermeddle with Men’s Affairs; for having thus (as it were) originally invaded his Right ex traduce, they are always for maintaining their wrong Conquests, and defending their unjust Possessions in future Progress of Time.

BUT I should rather in this Topick agree with Velthuysius^[42], that Both Seeds are each of them naturally endued with the Faculty of generating its Like: I mean, the Man’s, to produce a Male; and the Woman’s, a Female: And that therefore by a natural Predominancy, where the Masculine Faculty has prevail’d, a Man-Child is begot; and a Girl, where the Feminine Virtue has exceeded it.

THIS, in short, is the best and only Reason I know, why Children like to either Parent in Sex, may yet differ in Physiognomy, Manners, &c: the Seed of the one perhaps prevailing in making the Sex, and That of the other, in determining the rest of the Parts. Hence it is, in all Probability, that a Child like his Father in Sex, may be like his Mother in natural Disposition and Tenderness of Constitution. Although by the way (without doubt) the Place or Sinus of the Womb, Matter, Heat, and Imagination of the Woman, contribute very much to the Difference of the Sex; as will hereafter more plainly appear at large. AND, in fine, This is the only Cause of the Conception of Hermaphrodites, that the emitted Substance of Both Parents containing the full respective Faculty of Each, is sufficiently prolifick and prevalent to constitute and distinguish each proper Sex, in one and the same personal Production. But before I proceed farther on the Similitude of Children, I beg leave previously to describe the Force of IMAGINATION.