UPON this _Head_, and to this _Purpose_, I might produce the _Authorities_ of sundry good _Writers_, but shall content my self here at present with ONE of the same _Nation_, viz.[215] The most Learned and Eminent _Levinus Lemnius_, who gives us a very remarkable and particular Account at large, of a certain BIRTH, which began with a _MONSTROUS MOLE_, succeeded by the SUCKER, and ended with the _Production_ of an excarnificated MALE-CHILD. THESE things then being so, and proceeding merely from the immediate _Reasons_ above-mentioned, ought to serve for a memorable _Caution_ to all PARENTS, that, in their conjugal _Duties_, they behave themselves orderly and decently, not like insatiable BRUTES; but, like rational _Men_, to the end that their _Families_ may be preserved, and their _Persons_ succeeded, not by an opprobrious RACE, but, by a _univocal Generation_ of hopeful CHILDREN, Men of _Probity_ and _Integrity_ both in BODY and MIND. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAP. VIII. _Of Imaginary_ CONCEPTIONS. THERE remains yet one Sort of _spurious_ CONCEPTION, which happens without any _virile Help_ or _Assistance_, merely by the Force of _Imaginary VENERY_: Especially among _Salacious Women_, a _Seminal Fluxion_ may happen upon many coherent occasions; which joining and incorporating with the MENSTRUOUS BLOOD, may be so much fomented by the _Uterine Calidity_, and the other _Faculties_ of the WOMB, that the _Rudiments_ of an imperfect ANIMAL may be amassed and conceived. But—— AS the _Masculine SEED_ (the _efficient Cause_) which ministers both FORM and LIFE, is wanting, it can assume neither of these Perfections: The _Maternal Matter_ serving only to bring it to a rude indigested _Consistency_, or a confused fleshy _Substance_ of a strange and uncommon _FIGURE_. THIS in short, is no ways improbable, if we consider that _HENS_, without the _COCK_’s assistance, lay _Eggs_; however, of such a _Nature_, that whatever Pains the _HEN_ is afterwards at to _sit_ and _brood_ upon them, the _Eggs_ can never be animated so as to produce _CHICKENS_. Or, if we consider, that tho’ _feminine Trees_ or _Roots_, having of themselves less _Power_ and _Strength_, as they are only imbued with a _frigid_ and _infœcund Humidity_, may smile a little in their _SEASON_; yet, because of the natural _Deficiency_ of _HEAT_, and their innate _Debility_ or _Impotency_, they only yield an empty or imperfect _Rudiment_ of either _FRUIT_ or _SEED_, unless, by the _Vicinity_ and delectable _Conjunction_ of the _MALE_, they participate of its _Fœcundity_, as _Pliny_ testifies[216] of the PALM.