The whole troop of the Philosophers doedo herein consent, that their workework is -
nothing elselse, but man and wife: the mans part is indeed to generate, and governegovern -
the wife, hers to conceive, be imprægnatedimpregnated, bring forth, give suckesuck, and educate
the offspring, and be subject to the mans coḿandcommand: for as SheeShe sustainessustains and -
nourishethnourishes the conceived Embryo, before it be brought to light, with blood, soeso
being brought forth with milkemilk. To this end Nature hathhas præparedprepared for the -
tender infant a digestible and proportioned food in the mothers breasts, which -
waits his coming, as the first provision and viaticum in this race of the world:
by milkemilk therefore heehe is nourished, growesgrows, and is increased, till heehe be furnished
with instruments to chaw bread, that is, teeth, then is heehe deservedly weaned, be=
cause nature hathhas provided him other nutriment more solid: But here the Phi=
losophers say, that a Toad must be put to the womans breasts, that SheeShe may -
nourish it, as an infant, with her milkemilk: This is a miserable and horrible spectacle,
yea and a wicked thing, that milkemilk designed for an infant Should be given to a
Toad, being a venomous beast, and contrary to the nature of man: WeeWe have
heard and read of Serpents and Dragons sucking the teats of CowesCows: Toads might
perhaps desire the same thing, if occasion Should be offered in beasts. There is a -
noted story of a Toad, who seated himselfehimself upon the mouth, and inside of the -
lippslips of a certainecertain countryman being asleep, soeso that heehe could not be driven ofoff -
by any contrivance, unlesseunless by violence, which being accompanydaccompanied with danger of
death, by the spitting of poysonpoison (which heehe is saydsaid to use for defensive or offensive
weapons) was therefore not to be attempted; but a remedy being found for the -
miserable man by antipathy, namely, of a very great Spider and the Toad,
who hate one another mortally, heehe was therefore carrydcarried with the Toad di=
rectly to the place, where an overcomegrownegrown Spider had made its webs, which -
seingseeing the Toad, præsentlypresently came downedown upon the backeback of the Toad, and
prickdpricked him with its sting: but heehe having received noeno harmeharm thereby, it
descended a second time, and struckestruck him againeagain more strongly, where=
upon the Toad began iḿediatelyimmediately to swell, and fell downedown dead from the
mans mouth, without any hurt to him. But here a thing contrary happens, be=
cause the Toad seizethseizes not the mouth but the breast of the woman, by whose milkemilk heehe
increasethincreases soeso as to be of great magnitude and strength, but the woman consumes -
and dyesdies her spirits being taken away: for poysonpoison is easily coḿunicatedcommunicated by the

pec=
torallpectoral veins to the heart, and corrupts and destroyesdestroys it, as it is evident in the case of
Cleopatra, who applyedapplied Vipers to her breasts, being willing to be præventedprevented by vo* =
luntary death from being led alive into the hands and triumphs of the con=
queroursconquerors: But lest any man should thinkethink the Philosophers soeso cruellcruel, as to en=
joyneenjoin a venomous reptile to be put to a woman, heehe must know that this Toad
is the offspring or SonneSon of the same woman, produced by a monstrous birth,
and therefore by naturallnatural right ought to be fed and nourished by the mothers
milkemilk, but it is not in the will of the SonneSon that the mother should dyedie: for
neither could heehe infect his mother, who was coagulated in her bowellsbowels, and -
increased by blood even to birth. It is indeed a thing ominous for a Toad
to be borneborn of a woman, which in our knowledge hathhas happened elswhereelsewhere:
Guilielmus Novobrigensis, an English writer, in his coḿentaryescommentaries saythsays (how -
truelytruly let others judge) that in a certainecertain Stone=-quarryStone quarry in the DiocesseDiocese of the -
Bishop of Winchester, a great stone being divided, there was within found a living
Toad with a golden chainechain, and it was by the Bishops coḿandcommand hidden in the -
same place, and burydburied in perpetuallperpetual darknessedarkness, lest it might bear an ill omen -
with it: Such is allsoalso this Toad: for it is apparelledappareled with gold, though not extrin=
secallyextrinsically, with the artificiallartificial workework of a chainechain, yet intrisecallyintrinsically with a naturallnatural,
namely of a Stone, which some call Borax, Chelonitis, Batrachites, Crapaudina,
or Garatronium: for this farrefar excellsexcels gold in virtue against all poysonspoisons whatsoe=
ver of animallsanimals, and is coḿonlycommonly settset in gold, as a case or cover, that it may -
not be hurt or lost. But it ought to be legitimate being had out of thean animallanimal, but if
it be pickdpicked out of subterranean trenches, as coḿonlycommonly it is, the Stone taken up -
may be made neat in the formeform of it, and used instead thereof with the best
minerallsminerals, releivingrelieving and comforting the heart: for herein theseis the PhilosophicallPhilosophical
Toad is indeedreally found, not in a Stone=-quarryStone quarry (as that fabler affirms) and hathhas
gold in him, not outwardly for pompepomp: for to what end should a Toad adorneadorn
himselfehimself, lurking in darkenessedarkness and secret places? that heehe might perhaps -
be magnificently saluted by a Beetle, if it mettmet him in the twylighttwilight? what
subterranean Goldsmith should make him a golden chaynechain? the father -
perhaps of the green boyesboys, which came out of the land of St Martin, yea -
out of the earth itselfeitself, as allsoalso two doggsdogs out of the Stone=-quarryStone quarry, asserted
by the same Author? . . . . . . . . . . .