multi morbi epidemici, acerbi, et venenosi sint, in hunc immundum
concubitum rejiciunt, et crudeles in pignora vocant, qui quarta, luna
profluente hac mensium illuvie concubitum hunc non perhorrescunt. Damnavit
olim divina Lex et morte mulctavit hujusmodi homines, Lev. 18, 20, et inde
nati, siqui deformes aut mutili, pater dilapidatus, quod non contineret ab
[1335] immunda muliere. Gregorius Magnus, petenti Augustino nunquid apud
[1336]Britannos hujusmodi concubitum toleraret, severe prohibuit viris suis
tum misceri foeminas in consuetis suis menstruis_, &c. I spare to English
this which I have said. Another cause some give, inordinate diet, as if a
man eat garlic, onions, fast overmuch, study too hard, be over-sorrowful,
dull, heavy, dejected in mind, perplexed in his thoughts, fearful, &c.,
"their children" (saith [1337]Cardan _subtil. lib. 18_) "will be much
subject to madness and melancholy; for if the spirits of the brain be
fuzzled, or misaffected by such means, at such a time, their children will
be fuzzled in the brain: they will be dull, heavy, timorous, discontented
all their lives." Some are of opinion, and maintain that paradox or
problem, that wise men beget commonly fools; Suidas gives instance in
Aristarchus the Grammarian, _duos reliquit Filios Aristarchum et
Aristachorum, ambos stultos_; and which [1338]Erasmus urgeth in his
_Moria_, fools beget wise men. Card. _subt. l. 12_, gives this cause,
_Quoniam spiritus sapientum ob studium resolvuntur, et in cerebrum feruntur
a corde_: because their natural spirits are resolved by study, and turned
into animal; drawn from the heart, and those other parts to the brain.
Lemnius subscribes to that of Cardan, and assigns this reason, _Quod
persolvant debitum languide, et obscitanter, unde foetus a parentum
generositate desciscit_: they pay their debt (as Paul calls it) to their
wives remissly, by which means their children are weaklings, and many times
idiots and fools.

Some other causes are given, which properly pertain, and do proceed from