In the Year 1579, A Monster was Born in _France_, cover'd all over with Hair like a Beast, its Navel being in the place where his Nose should have been, his Eyes plac'd in the Situation of the Mouth; and its Mouth was in the Chin. It was of the Male-kind, and liv'd but a few Days, affrighting all that beheld it. And near _Elselling_ in _Germany_, in the Year 1529, there was a Boy Born with one Head and one Body, having four Ears, four Arms, and four Feet, and but two Thighs, and two Legs: This Birth, in the Opinion of the Learned, proceeded from a Redundancy of Seed beyond what was sufficient for one Child, but not enough for Twins, wherefore Nature Form'd what she could. There might be many other particular Instances given of Monstrous Births, as some sticking together by the Bellies, others by the Breech; some Born without Arms or Legs others without Heads, yet have they liv'd for some time, till want of Sustenance made them pine away and Die, as having no place to receive it, and others with Heads like Dogs, Wolves, Bears, and other Beasts. But I shall proceed to the cause of their Generation. The Natural Cause of Generation of Monsters, according to the Ancients, is either in the Matter, or in the Agent; in the Seed or in the Womb: The Matter may be unable to perform its Office two ways; by Defect, or by Excess: By Defect, when a Child hath but one Arm, or one Leg, &c. and by Excess, when it hath three Hands or two Heads. The Agent or Womb may be in Fault several ways, as in the forming Faculty, which may be too strong or too weak, by which a deprav'd Figure is oftentimes produc'd, the ill Conformation of the place of Conception will cause a Monstrous Birth; and the imaginative Power at the time of Conception, is so forcible, that it stamps a Character of the thing upon the Child; so that the Child of an Adulteress, by the strength of Imagination may have a nearer resemblance of her Husband, than of the Person who begat it. And some Histories mention, that through this Imaginative Faculty, a Woman at the time of Conception, beholding the Picture of a Blackamoor, produc'd a Child resembling an Æthiopian. Monsters are sometimes Engender'd by unseasonable amorous Embraces, as when a Man enters on the Pleasures of Venus at a time as the monthly Flowings are upon his Wife; For this being against Nature, it is no wonder that it should produce an unnatural Offspring. If therefore a Man's desire be never so great for Copulation at such a time, yet the Woman ought not to admit of his Embraces; the issue of those unclean Embraces proving often Monstrous, or dull and heavy, and Defective in their Understandings.