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THE SECOND BOOKE 573
that in it selfe it is a disease greatly to be feared,
its beginnings or approaches are in mee sharper or
more difficult than it is wont to trouble others withall.
The pangs and fittes thereof doe so often assaile mee,
that in a manner I have no more feeling of perfect
health. Notwithstanding I hitherto keepe my spirit so
seated as, if I can but joyne constancy unto it, I finde
my selfe to be in a much better state of life than a
thousand others, who have neither ague nor other
infirmitie, but such as for want of discourse they give
themselves. There is a certaine fashion of subtile
humilitie which proceedeth of presumption : as this,
that in many things we acknowledge our ignorance,
and are so curteous to avowe that in Natures workes
there are some qualities and conditions which to us are
imperceptible, and whereof our sufficiencie cannot discover
the meanes nor finde out the causes. By this
honest and conscientious declaration, we hope to gaine
that we shall also be beleeved in those we shall say to
understand. Wee neede not goe to cull out miracles,
and chuse strange difficulties: mee seemeth, that
amongst those things we ordinarily see there are such
incomprehensible rarities as they exceed all difficulty
of miracles. What monster is it that this teare or drop
of seed whereof we are ingendred brings with it, and
in it the impressions, not only of the corporall forme,
but even of the very thoughts and inclinations of our
fathers ? Where doth this droppe of water containe or
lodge this infinite number of formes ? And how bear
they these resemblances of so rash and unruly a progresse,
that the childes childe shall be answerable to
his grandfather, and the nephew to his uncle ? In the
family of the Lepidus the Roman, there have beene
three, not successively, but some between, that were
borne with one same eye covered with a cartilage or
gristle. There was a race in Thebes which from their
mothers wombe bare the forme of a burre, or yron of a
launce; and such as had it not were judged as misbegotten
and deemed unlawfull. Aristotle reporteth
of a certaine nation, with whom all women were