Q. Are they one or two? A. To find out, you must look into the heart, if
there be two hearts, there be two men.
Q. Why are some children like their father, some like their mother, some
to both and some to neither? A. If the seed of the father wholly
overcome that of the mother the child doth resemble the father; but if
the mother's predominate, then it is like the mother; but if he be like
neither, that doth sometimes happen through the four qualities,
sometimes through the influence of some heavenly constellation.
Q. Why are children oftener like the father than the mother? A. It
proceeds from the imagination of the mother in the act of copulation, as
appeared in a queen who had her imagination on a blackamoor; and in the
Ethiopian queen who brought forth a white child, because her imagination
was upon a white colour; as is seen in Jacob's skill in casting rods of
divers colours into the water, when his sheep went to ram.
Q. Why do children born in the eighth month for the most part die
quickly, and why are they called the children of the moon? A. Because
the moon is a cold planet, which has dominion over the child, and
therefore doth bind it with coldness, which is the cause of its death.
Q. Why doth a child cry as soon as it is born? A. Because of the sudden
change from heat to cold: which cold doth affect its tenderness.
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