Well Born

Robert Burton (1577-1640), Anatomy of Melancholy, Pt. I, Sec. 2, Memb' I, Subs. 6 (vol. 1, pp. 215-216 of the Everyman edition): So many several ways are we plagued and punished for our fathers' defaults: in so much that, as Fernelius truly saith, "It is the greatest part of our felicity to be well born, and it were happy for humankind, if only such parents as are sound of body and mind should be suffered to marry." An husbandman will sow none but the best and choicest seed upon his land; he will not rear a bull or an horse, except he be right shapen in all parts, or permit him to cover a mare, except he be well assured of his breed; we make choice of the best rams for our sheep, rear the neatest kine, and keep the best dogs, quanto id diligentius in procreandis liberis observandum! and how careful then should we be in begetting of our children! In former times some countries have been so chary in this behalf, so stern, that, if a child were crooked or deformed in body or mind, they…