HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE, - Horntip

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inflamed by ftrokes to a more eafy conception. This
was known to the Roman ladies, who offered their
hands to be whipped by the Luperci to promote con-
ception. Juvenal fpeaks of this ceremony in his
fecond fatire-
jleeriles inoriuntur, & illis
Turgida non prodefl condita pyxide Lyde ;
Nec prodefl agili palmas preebere Luperco.
Barren they dye, a lovely Lyde mocks
Their hopes, tho' piaued teeming in the box,
In vain, before the quick Lupercal band,
They with conception from the paffive hand.
Now there is an eafy reafon why the ftriking- of the
palni fhould forward fecundity in the Roman ladies,
without having recourfe to fuperflition, to be drawn
from the circulation of the blood : for the blood
growing warm in the hand from the ftrokes received,
runs back to the heart, and from thence, by the
arteries, to the womb, which being thus inflamed is
excited to lull:, and difpofed for conception. As to
the ferula itfelf, which was made ufe of in the feaft of
the Luperci, Feftus Pompeius defcribes it thus—The
Romans