Читать книгу The Female Physician - John Maubray - Страница 28
ОглавлениеCHAP. VIII. Of the SIMILITUDE of Children.
WHATEVER may be advanced on this Head, the most probable and solid Reason for the Child’s Likeness or Resemblance, is the IMAGINATION of the Mother in the Act of Copulation; together with the Liberty she gives herself in her Thoughts and Actions, during the Time of Formation, commonly call’d the Time of Breeding.
HENCE it is, that whatever she intentively fixes her Eyes upon, or conceives and impresses in her Mind, the Infant represents the same in its extimous Parts: And particularly whatever Object she directs her Eyes or Thoughts upon, in the Interval between the Embrace and the Charm, its Effigies is afterwards manifest in the Child. As St. Jerom thus relates of a certain Woman, who conceiv’d and brought forth a Black-Child, tho’ both She and her Husband (the real Father) were white; meerly by eying a PICTURE in the Bed-Chamber at that critical Juncture.
UPON this Chapter[48]Pliny has most elegantly express’d the Artifice of Nature, together with all the Reasons and Causes of Similitude, to this Purpose; viz. “The Cogitations of the Mind make much for the Similitudes and Resemblances of Children: As many other accidental Occurrences are thought to be very efficacious in the same, and that whether they come by Sight, Hearing, or calling to Remembrance; or by Imaginations conceiv’d, and deeply apprehended in the very Act of Generation, or the very Instant of Conception: The inconstant Mind, and wandering Thought, of either Parent, is justly suppos’d to be one Cause.”
HENCE it is, that some Children favour and resemble their Fathers, some their Mothers, some their Grandfathers, or Mothers, and some their Kinsmen: And hence also it is, that there is more Difference and Diversity in the Rational Kind, than in all other Creatures; because the Velocity of their Thoughts, the Celerity of their Minds, and the Variety of their Dispositions, impress a far greater Diversity of various peculiar MARKS: While the rest of irrational Creatures have their Minds continually fixed (in a manner) immoveable, steady, and alike: every One of them in its own peculiar Kind, and specifick Nature.
INSOMUCH that the Woman’s IMAGINATION frequently induces a strange Likeness to her Infant; that is, in no Part, and in no Respect, favouring the Father. From whence it often happens, that a Woman abusing her Husband’s Bed, and fearing perhaps to be surpriz’d by him in the ACT, brings forth (in due time) her CHILD, no ways resembling the real Father, (namely the Gallant); but altogether LIKE to the injur’d Husband.
UPON which Case the following facetious Epigram was occasionally written by the famous and celebrated Sir Thomas More.
“Quos ante Conjux quatuor
“Natos, SABINE, protulit,
“Multùm ecce dissimiles tui,
“Tuos nec ipse deputas.
“Sed quem tibi puellulum
“Enixa jam nuperrimè est,
“Solum tibi simillimum,
“Pro quatuor complecteris.
“Adulterinos quatuor
“Vocas, repellis, abdicas.
“Atqui graves tradunt Sophi,
“Quodcunque matres interim
“Imaginantur fortiter,
“Dum liberis datur opera,
“Ejus latenter & notas
“Certas, & indelebiles
“Modóque inexplicabili
“In semen ipsum congeri.
“Quibus receptis intimè,
“Simúlque concrescentibus,
“A mente Matris insitam
“Natus refert imaginem.
“Quum tot abesses millibus,
“Dum gignit Uxor quatuor,
“Quòd esset admodum tui
“Secura, dissimiles parit.
“Sed unus omnium hic Puer
“Tui refert imaginem,
“Quòd mater hunc dum concipit,
“Sollicita de te plurimùm,
“Te tota cogitaverat,
“Dum pertimescit anxia,
“Ne tu, Sabine, incommodus,
“Velútque lupus in fabulâ
“Supervenires interim.
HOWEVER, as to what relates to the Tempers, Dispositions, Miens, Manners, Qualities, and Propensions of the Mind, daily Examples convince us, that Children, after all, generally much resemble Those of their Progenitors; which proceeds merely from the Efficacy of the Seed, containing the Power of the natural Faculties of their Minds and vital Spirits, which are thence infus’d into their Posterity.
BUT I take this Matter to depend much upon the Passion, Indolence, or Indifferency of the Mind, with which the Act of Copulation is perform’d. For as the Ardour and Fervency of the Parents, and their plentiful prolifick Contribution, tend much to the CHILD’s affecting the same Behaviour, Gestures, Actions, Tempers, and Motions of Body and Mind; even sometimes to their representing the very Nature, and treading the very Foot-Steps of their Parents, to so nice a degree, of an exact Resemblance, that I’ve more than once observed a Mole-Mark of a Father plainly impress’d on his Child. Which, I think, is also conformable to[49] Horace’s Meaning;
“Fortes creantur fortibus & bonis:
“Est in Juvencis, est in equis patrum
“Virtus: nec imbellem feroces
“Progenerant Aquilæ Columbam.
To valiant Fathers, valiant Sons succeed;
Thus Bulls from Bulls descend, and martial Horses breed.
AND because the Institution of Nature, perfects its own Gifts, which, by the Help of Education, corrects Errors, and abolishes Blemishes; the Poet very pertinently adds,
“Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam,
“Rectíq; Mores pectora roborant.
Yet the best Blood by Learning is refin’d,
And Virtue arms the solid Mind;
Whilst Vice will stain the noblest Race,
And the paternal Stamp efface.
BUT, however yet, there are many Parents still less salacious and less fervid; who rather vilify, than covet, and rather abstain from, than delight themselves in this Encounter. In short, there are some of both Sexes, who, in patiently gratifying their active Consorts, esteem it rather a sort of Hardship and TASK for Family-Quiet, than any incumbent DUTY of Nuptial Benevolence; Which[50]St. Paul seems to allude to, by calling it the defrauding of one the other.
FROM hence it is, that Children often degenerate from the Nature and Qualities of their Parents; from hence also it is, that brisk Men sometimes have stupid, and wise Men frequently beget foolish Children. This happens only because of the Indifferency, Indolence, or Coldness, either of Mind or Constitution, in their Conjugal Pleasures: The dull heavy Faculty of their Inclinations to the Act, being diffus’d and transmitted through the Seed into the Infant, according to Catullus;
“Naturæ sequitur semina quisque suæ.
BUT farther still, the Seed flowing from the principal Parts of the Body, comprehends in itself the Vigour and Quality of their respective Members: Whence it follows, that Diseases, Imperfections, Blemishes, or any other Deformity, inherent in any Part of the Parents, becomes commonly hereditary to their Children.
THIS is the Case of the whole Dutchy of upper Styria, where all the Natives have a huge Excrescence of Flesh, which grows up with the Body (however visibly increasing and decreasing with the Moon) generally lying upon the Left side from the Jaw-bone, and hanging downwards: So that the Women giving Suck of that Breast, commonly cast this carnous Excrescence (which they call Crape) over their Shoulders. This is so Natural to them, and remarkable, that in a Journey once from Venice to Vienna, passing thro’ the chief Town of that Country, call’d Judenburg, I had the Curiosity to go off the Post-Waggon, into the Church, with five other Gentlemen, Fellow-Passengers, to be better satisfy’d of the Truth of it. The People were at Mass, but the sight of us soon confounded, or at least disturb’d their Devotion; for in a Moment, the Eyes of the whole Congregation were staring upon us, wondering to see so many deform’d Men (as they call’d us) in that Place at one Time.
AND the same is the only Reason, that most Children in Spain and Portugal, are born with some Symptoms of the Venereal Disease; which, however, is without any infectious Malignity, and so Natural to them, that they seldom apply to the Doctor for Cure, until the Case becomes more dangerous or desperate by the Party’s own Means: which generally happens to them in a very few Years, being exceedingly Salacious from their Infancy, because of the stimulating Acrimony of the putrid Humours of the Body, which they only strive to mitigate, or allay, by continual Whoring.
FROM what’s already said, we see that the Efficacy of the Father’s Seed is very considerable; insomuch, that indeed many calamitous Misfortunes may derive from it, to his Posterity: But it is, however, to be strictly observ’d, that what Disorder soever of a vitious Nature derives itself this way from the Mother, hath yet the greater Malignity, and more powerful Effect upon her CHILDREN[51]; the Habits of her Body, Good or Bad, her Virtues or Vices, taking still a deeper Root, or firmer Footing in the Constitution of the Foetus. Which Distinction, in short, must needs be a most plain Case, considering that the Maternal Blood is its chief Aliment, and the very secundary ORIGIN of its Procreation.
AND this, in fine, is the only natural Reason to be given, why many Things, no ways commendable in either Sex, are the less excusable in the Woman.
