i68 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



that a woman could not be brought to bed before the tenth month 

 was completed ; for, fays fhe, all do not make out the ten months, 

 but fome are delivered in the ninth month, and fome even in the 

 feventh. ' And you,' fhe adds, * was a cluld of the feventh month.* 



I know that tliofe, who are not fcholars, and, confequently, know 

 not the very great merit of this hiftorian, do not give much credit 

 to the fads he relates ; but, though they fhould not believe his fads, 

 yet, I think, they cannot doubt what he relates of the manners 

 and opinions of his own age, efpecially concerning a fad about 

 which there could be no difference of opinion. 



If there w^as any doubt of the matter, the teftimony of Ariftotle 

 is alone fufficient to decide the quefticn. ' Other Animals,' fays he, 



* have the time of the birth of their offspring fixed by Nature : And it is 



* only among men that it is uncertain and various; for the geftation a- 



* mongthem is fometimes feven months, fometimes eight monhts, fome- 



* times nine, but ten for the greater part, with a part fometimes of the 



* eleventh month*.' The reafon of this fo great variety in our fpecies, 

 and the difference betwixt us and other animals, in this refped, is, 

 according to my apprehenfion, that thofe animals live in a natural, 

 whereas we live In an unnatural way, which produces this, and 

 many other irregularities and deviations from Nature among us. 

 And, further, it is to be obferved, that Man has paffed through a 



greater 



Tx fitv cu)i ccA>.c6 ^uu ft»tx^>ii -tJUHTmi 7/,v jcv Tijcov TiXeiucriv' hi y«| w^ia-Txt rev Ttr.tv 

 %g»v«,- 3r-;«5-.», xiOpii'xai 6i Zj'oXXot ^oiai ru¥ ^uuv. K«( yo-p iSTTxutiVx, x.Xi cKTxfAVjDXf text 

 vnixtifi^x ytvovTxi, Kxt oiKXftn>x to zrXno-rov. E^mi o' tz7t>>xu,Sx>ovs-i r.xi, rov aoiKXTcv fcvf 



It;. Arilt. Lib vii de Hiflor. Atiimal. Cap. 4. Ihe months, among the Greeks 

 and among the Romans, before the relormation of the Calkndcr by JuHns Caefar, 

 were iunar months, which confifl of 29 'lays, a half, and fomi.thing more ; but, in 

 computing by lunar months, they coi-nmonly affigned the round number of 30 days 

 to a month, as is evident from a paffage of Herodotus, Lib. i. cap. 32. where 

 lie reckons that 35 months make 1050 days, -which is precJfely 30 days to the 

 month; bo that, accordmg to this way of computing, a woman in Greece muft 

 have gone very near one o'l our kalender months longer than one of our women, that 

 is, a ni'nth part longer. 



