To valiant _Fathers_, valiant _Sons_ succeed; Thus _Bulls_ from _Bulls_ descend, and _martial Horses_ breed. AND because the _Institution of Nature_, perfects its own _Gifts_, which, by the Help of _Education_, corrects _Errors_, and abolishes _Blemishes_; the _Poet_ very pertinently adds, _“Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam, “Rectíq; Mores pectora roborant._ Yet the best _Blood_ by _Learning_ is refin’d, And _Virtue_ arms the _solid Mind_; Whilst _Vice_ will stain the _noblest Race_, And the _paternal Stamp_ efface. BUT, however yet, there are many _Parents_ still less salacious and less fervid; who rather vilify, than covet, and rather abstain from, than delight themselves in this _Encounter_. In short, there are some of both Sexes, who, in patiently gratifying their active _Consorts_, esteem it rather a sort of _Hardship_ and _TASK_ for _Family-Quiet_, than any incumbent _DUTY_ of _Nuptial Benevolence_; Which[50]St. _Paul_ seems to allude to, by calling it the _defrauding of one the other_. FROM hence it is, that _Children_ often degenerate from the _Nature_ and _Qualities_ of their PARENTS; from hence also it is, that _brisk Men_ sometimes have _stupid_, and _wise Men_ frequently beget _foolish Children_. This happens only because of the _Indifferency_, _Indolence_, or _Coldness_, either of Mind or Constitution, in their _Conjugal Pleasures_: The dull heavy _Faculty_ of their _Inclinations_ to the ACT, being diffus’d and transmitted through the SEED into the _Infant_, according to _Catullus_; _“Naturæ sequitur semina quisque suæ._ BUT farther still, the SEED flowing from the _principal Parts_ of the Body, comprehends in itself the _Vigour_ and _Quality_ of their respective Members: Whence it follows, that _Diseases_, _Imperfections_, _Blemishes_, or any other _Deformity_, inherent in any _Part_ of the PARENTS, becomes commonly _hereditary_ to their CHILDREN.