[Illustration]
The agent or womb may be in fault three ways; firstly, the formative
faculty, which may be too strong or too weak, by which is procured a
depraved figure; secondly, to the instrument or place of conception, the
evil confirmation or the disposition whereof will cause a monstrous
birth; thirdly, in the imaginative power at the time of conception;
which is of such a force that it stamps the character of the thing
imagined on the child. Thus the children of an adulteress may be like
her husband, though begotten by another man, which is caused through the
force of imagination that the woman has of her own husband at the act
of coition. And I have heard of a woman, who, at the time of conception,
beholding the picture of a blackamoor, conceived and brought forth an
Ethiopian. I will not trouble you with more human testimonies, but
conclude with a stronger warrant. We read (Gen. xxx. 31) how Jacob
having agreed with Laban to have all the spotted sheep for keeping his
flock to augment his wages, took hazel rods and peeled white streaks on
them, and laid them before the sheep when they came to drink, which
coupling together there, whilst they beheld the rods, conceived and
brought forth young.
[Illustration:
"Where children thus are born with hairy coats
Heaven's wrath unto the kingdom it denotes"]
Another monster representing a hairy child.
Pages:
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39