Page:A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind (IA discourseuponori00rous).pdf/310

Experiments would be requiſite, which aſſuredly Mr. Locke had not made, and which no one is in a Condition to make. The continual Cohabitation of Huſband and Wife is ſo near an Occaſion for the former to expoſe herſelf to a new Pregnancy, that it is hardly probable a fortuitous Concourſe, or a mere Blaze of Paſſion ſhould produce as frequent Effects in a pure State of Nature, as in that of conjugal Society; a Tardineſs, which would contribute perhaps to render the Children more robuſt, and which beſides might be made up by the Power of conceiving being extended to a more advanced Age with Women, who had not ſo much abuſed it in their younger Days. In regard to Children, there are many Reaſons for believing that their Power and Organs develop themſelves among us later than they did in the primitive State of which I ſpeak. The original Weakneſs which they derive from the Conſtitution of their Parents, the Care taken to fold up, ſtrain and cramp all their Members, the Softneſs in which they are reared, perhaps too the Uſe of another Woman's Milk, every thing oppoſes and checks in them the firſt Operations of Nature. The