Heraclitus Christianus, or, The man of sorrow being a reflection on all states and conditions of human life : in three books.

CHAP. II. Of Mans miserable birth, and en∣trance into the World.

AFter having been long nourished as before mentioned, and being now formed and grown bigger, and ha∣ving need of greater sustenance, he set∣teth himself with great impetuosity to search for more; which is the cause he so moveth himself, that he breaketh the Fi∣bers wherewith he hath been all this while retained; so that the Matrix feeling it self concerned, will no longer sustain him, but forceth it self to put him out; where∣fore it openeth, and by that opening, the Child feeling the Air enter, pursueth it, and draweth more and more to the Ori∣fice of the Matrix, and entreth into the light of this World, not without great and violent dolours, and hurt to his ten∣der body; but during the Nine months time, how much pain and sorrow doth he cause to his Mother that bears him! not to take notice of some, who whilst they are big with Child lose their appe∣tite,

and are desirous to eat of human flesh; so that we read in History, That their poor Husbands have been constrain∣ed to fly, and absent themselves; others have desired to eat Ashes, burning Coals, or other things like thereunto, according to the corrupt and depraved humours a∣bounding in their bodies; moreover, what anguish and sorrow have their Mothers to bring them into the World! in what danger are they when they are in Travel? Some their Arms come out first of all, some the Feet, others the Knees, some double; but that which is most cruel, and which we cannot apprehend without horror, They are forced sometimes instead of the Midwives to call the Surgeon to dismember the infant and tear it in pieces; sometimes the Mother must be cut open alive, and anatomiz'd, that they may come at the Child. Some Children are born so prodigious and deformed, that they resemble not Men but Monsters; some are born with Two Heads, some with Four Leggs, as hath been known in Paris, and at the time when I was making this Book. Polydorus writeth, That be∣fore Marcellus was chased by Hannibal, that a Woman brought forth a Child, having the Head of an Elephant; another having four

feet as a Beast: The modern Histories make mention of a Roman Courtizan, that was brought to Bed of a Child, who was half a Dog. They who have writ the Hi∣stories of the Indies, do assure us, That even at this present, there are found them there, who are half men and half Beasts, occasioned by the execrable bruitishness of their Parents; others are born blind, o∣thers deaf, others mute, others more in∣firm and defective in their members; for which their Friends are sorry, their Mo∣thers infamous, and their Fathers shamed; so that if we consider attentively all the misery of our Nativity, we shall find the ancient saying true: That we are concei∣ved in uncleanness, born and brought into the World with pain and sorrow, and nou∣rished and brought up with anguish and labour.