he aptest time for conception is instantly after the menses have
ceased, because then the womb is thirsty and dry, apt both to draw the
seed and return it, by the roughness of the inward surface, and besides,
in some, the mouth of the womb is turned into the back or side, and is
not placed right until the last day of the courses.

Excess in all things is to be avoided. Lay aside all passions of the
mind, shun study and care, as things that are enemies to conception, for
if a woman conceive under such circumstances, however wise the parents
may be, the children, at best, will be but foolish; because the mental
faculties of the parents, viz., the understanding and the rest (from
whence the child derives its reason) are, as it were, confused through
the multiplicity of cares and thought; of which we have examples in
learned men, who, after great study and care, having connection with
their wives, often beget very foolish children. A hot and moist air is
most suitable, as appears by the women in Egypt, who often bring forth
three or four children at one time.

* * * * *

CHAPTER X

_Virginity, what it is, in what it consists, and how vitiated;
together with the Opinions of the Learned about the Change of Sex
in the Womb, during the Operation of Nature in forming the Body._

There are many ignorant people that boast of their skill in the
knowledge of virginity, and some virgins have undergone harsh censures
through their ignorant conclusions; I therefore thought it highly
necessary to clear up this point, that the towering imaginations of
conceited ignorance might be brought down, and the fair sex (whose
virtues are so illustriously bright that they excite our wonder and
command our imitation), may be freed from the calumnies and detractions
of ignorance and envy; and so their honour may continue as unspotted, as
they have kept their persons uncontaminated and free from defilement.

Virginity, in a strict sense, signifies the prime, the chief, the best
of anything; and this makes men so desirous of marrying virgins,
imagining some secret pleasure is to be enjoyed in their embraces, more
than in those of widows, or of such as have been lain with before,
though not many years ago, a very great personage thought differently,
and to use his own expression:--"The getting a maidenhead was such a
piece of drudgery, that it was fitter for a coal heaver than a
prince."[1] Bu