BOOK VII. VI. 42-vin. 45 



embryo begins to grow hair ; and also at the full 

 moon, which period is also specially inimical to 

 infants after birth. The gait in walking and every 

 thing that can be mentioned are so important during 

 pregnancv that mothcrs eating food that is too salt 

 bear children lacking nails, and that not holding 

 the breath makes the delivery more difficult ; indeed, 

 to gape during deUvery may cause death, just as 

 a sneeze foUowing copulation causes abortion. 



\ll. One feels pity and even shame in reaHzing AboTtion. 

 how trivial is the origin of the proudest of the animals, 

 when the smell of lamps being put out usually causes 

 abortion ! These are the beginnings from which 

 are born tyrants and the pride that deals slaughter. 

 You who put confidence in your bodily strength, 

 you who accept fortune's bounty and deem yourself 

 not even her nursehng but her ofFspring, you whose 

 thoughts are of empire, you who when swelUng with 

 some success beUeve yourself a god, could you have 

 been made away with so cheaply ? and even to-day 

 you can be more cheaply, frora being bitten by a 

 snake's tiny tooth, or even choked by a raisin-stone 

 Uke the poet Anacreon, or by a single hair in a draught 

 of milk, Uke the praetor Fabius Senator. Assuredly 

 only he who always remembers how frail a thing man 

 is wiU weigh Ufe in an impartial balance ! 



\TII. It is against nature to be born feet foremost ; Dduery 

 this is the reason why the designation of ' Agrippa ' 

 has been appUed to persons so born — meaning ' born 

 with difficulty ' " ; Marcus Agrippa is said to have 

 been bom in this manner, almost the soUtary instance 

 of a successful career among aU those so born — 

 although he too is deemed to have paid the penalty 

 which his in'egular birth foretold, by a youth made 



535 



