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.
