CHAP. III. What is the cause why Females of all brute beasts, being great with young, do neither desire, nor admit the males, until they have brought forth their Young.
* 1.1THe cause hereof is, forasmuch as they are moved by sense only, they apply themselves unto the thing that is present, very little or nothing at all perceiving things that are past, and to come. Therefore after they have conceived, they are unmindful of the plea∣sure that is past, and do abhor copulation; for the sense or feeling of lust is given unto them by na∣ture,* 1.2 only for the preservation of their kinde, and not for voluptuousness, or delectation▪ But the males rageing, swelling, and as it were stimulated by the provocations of the heat, or fervency of their lust, do then run unto them, follow and desire copulation, because a certain strong odor or smell commeth into the air from their secret or genital parts, which pierceth into their nostrils, and unto their brain, and so inserteth an imagination, desire, and heat. Contrariwise, the sense and feeling of Venerous actions seemeth to be given by nature to women, not only for the pro∣pagation of issue and for the conservation of mankinde, but also to mitigate and asswage the mi∣series of mans life, as it were by the enticements of that pleasure: also the great store of hot blood that is about the heart, wherewith men abound, maketh greatly to this purpose, which by impulsion of imagination, which ruleth the humors, being driven by the proper passages down from the heart and entrails into the genital parts, doth stir up in them a new lust.
The males of brute beasts, being provoked or moved by the stimulations of lust, rage and are almost burst with a Tentigo or extension of the genital parts, and sometimes wax mad; but after that they have satisfied their lust with the female of their kinde, they presently become gentle, and leave off such fierceness.