Perì polupaidías. Or, a discourse concerning the having many children. In which the prejudices against a numerous offspring are removed. And the objections answered / In a letter to a friend ... [Anon].

Samuel Dugard

Date:: 1695

Credit: Perì polupaidías. Or, a discourse concerning the having many children. In which the prejudices against a numerous offspring are removed. And the objections answered / In a letter to a friend ... [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$may as juftly caufe them to wifh they may be none : For why fhould Pity be fo partial as to al¬ low Any .one to be born, which will not allow more ? Elpec aliy fince in a lmaller Number the Condition will not be the better: The Natural [lAte of men being the fame in Few as in Many* But let us a little confider the Objeftion. I eafily grant it to be a miferable world we lire in. The Heathen Ipake very acutely, who faid it was in the firft place befi for a man not to be born ; in the next, beftto dve quickly. And Eliphaz of old faid very truly, That 5' 7‘ man is born to trouble [as naturally] as the fparks fly upwards. And we know whole uleitwas to weep at the Births, and rejoice at the Deaths of any amongft them: Yet for all. this there rnay be a not undelirable Entertain- ment in the world for a Numerous IlTue ; for men are generally well enough pleas’d with their being here. Even good men are apt to be too much taken with the world ; and thofeof the rvorfe fort could wifh their lot might be for ever in it. Such Provifion God hath made not only for our Neceffities, but Pleafures alfo and De¬ lights, that rhe Stoick in Cicero de Nat.Deor. from the Confideration thereof could fay, Pro- nor a noflra interdum Epicurea fuiffe ftideatur • Providence fometimes Teems to favour the Epi¬ cureans This I am fure of, that Many, per¬ haps the greater number of the troubles of the world have their rife from an immoderate ufe of th\ * •$