AND besides, the same is the Case, when the _Natural Faculties_ are all at work in _forming_, or ripening the FŒTUS; for if the _Woman_ be _surpriz’d_ at any sudden Evil, or _frighted_ at any unseemly Sight, the _Humours_ and _Spirits_ presently retire downwards, and (as it were) abscond themselves in the _Recess_ of the WOMB: From whence immediately a strong _IMAGINATION_ of the disagreeable _Thing_ (whether _seen_ or _heard_ only) seizes her _Mind_; and the _Forming Faculty_ (going on in the _Interim_) quickly impresses the _Imaginary Idea_ of _That_ thing heard off, or the _Shape_ and _Form_ of _That_ thing seen, upon the FŒTUS. The same is the _Reason_, that if a _Mouse_, _Rat_, _Weazel_, _Cat_, or the like, leaps suddenly upon a _Woman_ that has conceived, or if an _Apple_, _Pear_, _Plum_, _Cherry_, &c. fall upon any part of her _Body_; the _MARK_ of the thing (be what it will) is instantly _imprinted_, and will manifestly appear on the same _Part_, or _Member_ of the _CHILD_: unless the _Woman_ (in that very Moment) wipe _That Part_ or _Member_, and move her _Hand_ to some more remote, private, or convenient _Place_ of the _Body_: which done, the _MARK_ is actually averted, or at least stamped upon the _other Part_ touch’d, where the deep _Impression_ of the _Mind_, directs, and fixes the _IMAGINATION_; and whither the _Forming Faculty_ (not so much by any _Virtue_ of the simple TOUCH, as by _Force_ of the strong _IMAGINATION_) infallibly converts it. IN fine, having thus briefly defin’d, and variously described the _Powers_ of _IMAGINATION_, I come in the next Place, more particularly, to treat of the Reasons of SIMILITUDE in _Children_. [Illustration] CHAP. VIII. _Of the SIMILITUDE of Children._ WHATEVER may be advanced on this _Head_, the most probable and solid Reason for the _Child_’s _Likeness_ or _Resemblance_, is the _IMAGINATION_ of the _Mother_ in the ACT of _Copulation_; together with the _Liberty_ she gives herself in her _Thoughts_ and _Actions_, during the Time of _Formation_, commonly call’d the Time of _Breeding_. HENCE it is, that whatever she intentively fixes her _Eyes_ upon, or _conceives_ and _impresses_ in her Mind, the INFANT represents the same in its _extimous Parts_: And particularly whatever OBJECT she directs her _Eyes_ or _Thoughts_ upon, in the Interval between the _Embrace_ and the _Charm_, its _Effigies_ is afterwards manifest in the CHILD. As St. _Jerom_ thus relates of a certain _Woman_, who conceiv’d and brought forth a _Black-Child_, tho’ both _She_ and her _Husband_ (the real Father) were _white_; meerly by eying a _PICTURE_ in the Bed-Chamber at that _critical Juncture_.