THUS, in short, _Nature_ hath cared and provided for _Propagation_ and _Posterity_; not only in the _Human Race_, but also in all other _Species_ of Creatures, according to the excellent _Poet_[36]; _“Omne adeo genus in terris hominúmq; Ferarúmq; “Et genus Æquoreum, pecudes, pictæq; Volucres, “In furias ignemq; ruunt_: AMOR _omnibus idem.—— “Quid Juvenis_, &c.—— Thus ev’ry _Creature_, and of ev’ry _Kind_, The secret Joys of sweet COITION find: Not only _Man_’s imperial Race; but they That wing the liquid _Air_, or swim the _Sea_, Or haunt the _Desart_, rush into the _Flame_: For LOVE is Lord of all; and is in all the _same_. ’Tis with this Rage, the _Mother-Lion_ stung, Scours o’er the Plain; regardless of her Young: Demanding _Rites of Love_, she sternly stalks; And hunts her LOVER, in his lonely Walks. ’Tis then the shapeless _Bear_ his Den forsakes; In Woods and Fields a vast Destruction makes. _Boars_ whet their Tusks, to battle _Tygers_ move, Enrag’d with Hunger, more enrag’d with LOVE. BUT all ludicrous Diversions apart! I proceed hence to a necessary _Consequence_ of this Noble Natural _PASSION_; _viz._ [Illustration] CHAP. V. _Of COPULATION._ THIS _Conjunction_ of both SEXES, is the _Consummation_ of LOVE, and the _Pinnacle_ of the _Lover_’s natural Felicity. It is the Sum and superlative Degree of their _terrene Happiness_; above which the _Lovers_ cannot aspire, naturally speaking, in _Human Society_. THIS is also the utmost _Height_ of their eager Desires, and the greatest _Extent_ of their languishing Wishes. It is the _Abatement_, as well as the _Completion_ of their unbounded _Passions_, and the _Tranquillity_ of their restless _Minds_. However yet—— THIS ACT is _Two-fold_; _Fæcund_ and successful, or _Sterile_ and unsuccessful in the Event. I. AS to the _First_, some most famous AUTHORS have written their Minds freely and copiously upon it, and have given certain pertinent _Instructions_, touching the _Time_, and _Manner_, as well as _Conduct_ of the _Parties_ concern’d, both before and after the ACT: Particularly _Avicenna_[37] (no _Proletarian Writer_, but a most Illustrious and most Learned _Prince_) has insisted at large upon every Case belonging to this Head, together with the _Way_ and _Manner_, as well as the proper _Time_ of begetting either SEX; _“Ubi, inquit, menses defluxerint, sitq; abstersus Uterus, quod quinto ferè die usu venit, aut septimo; Si Vir Mulieri congrediatur, à primo quàm est purgata die ad quintum, MAREM produci: à quinto verò ad octavum, FÆMELLAM: rursus ab octavo ad duodecimum denuo, MASCULUM, &c.”_