[k] Quid loquar, quanta ratio in bestiis ad perpetuam conservationem earum generis appareat? Nam primum aliæ Mares, aliæ Fœminæ sunt, quod perpetuitatis causâ machinata natura est. Cic. de Nat. Deor. l. 2. c. 51.
[l] Altho’ Aristotle held the Eternity of the World, yet he seems to have retracted that Opinion, or to have had a different Opinion when he wrote his Metaphysicks; for in his first Book he affirms, that God is the Cause and Beginning of all Things; and in his Book de Mundo he saith, There is no doubt, but God is the Maker and Conservator of all Things in the World. And the Stoicks Opinion is well known, who strenuously contended that the Contrivance and Beauty of the Heavens and Earth, and all Creatures was owing to a wise, intelligent Agent. Of which Tully gives a large Account in his second Book de Nat. Deor. in the Person of Balbus.
[m] I have before in [Note (g)], observed, that the ordinary rate of the Doubling or Increase of Mankind is, that every Marriage, one with another, produces about four Births; but some have much exceeded that. Babo, Earl of Abensperg, had thirty two Sons and eight Daughters, and being invited to hunt with the Emperor Henry II. and bring but few Servants, brought only one Servant, and his thirty two Sons. To these many others might be added; but one of the most remarkable Instances I have any where met with, is that of Mrs. Honywood, mentioned by Hakewill, Camden, and other Authors; but having now before me the Names, with some Remarks (which I received from a pious neighbouring Descendant of the same Mrs. Honywood) I shall give a more particular Account than they. Mrs. Mary Honywood was Daughter, and one of the Co-Heiresses of Robert Atwaters, Esq; of Lenham in Kent. She was born in 1527, married in February 1543, at sixteen Years of Age, to her only Husband Robert Honywood, of Charing in Kent, Esq; She died in the ninety third Year of her Age, in May 1620. She had sixteen Children of her own Body, seven Sons and nine Daughters; of which one had no issue, three died young, and the youngest was slain at Newport Battle, June 20, 1600. Her Grand-Children in the second Generation, were one hundred and fourteen; in the third two hundred and twenty eight; and nine in the fourth Generation. So that she could say the same that the Distick doth, made of one of the Dalburg’s Family of Basil:
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Mater ait Natæ, dic Natæ, filia Natam
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Ut moneat, Natæ, plangere Filiolam.
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Rise up Daughter, and go to thy Daughter,
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