natural dogs which had connexion with them; but the world would, if this thing were possible, be filled with the fruits of such couplings. For it was not only yesterday that such things were practised: Levit. 18 & 20.the law of God long since punished with death the man and the beast who had sinned together. Therefore I conclude that if, because of the disproportion between man and a brute beast, no issue can come of any copulation between them, much less can there be any issue from the coupling of Satan with a witch, whether Satan take the body of a hanged man, or whether he make himself a body out of the elements.
This may seem to refute what we have said about sea monsters which are born from two fishes of different species; but there is great similarity between two such animals, in spite of the difference in their species; and there are parallel cases on land, where we know that a mule is born from an ass and a mare, and the Basilisk from a cock and a toad.
As for the Merman, it is difficult to believe that he is generated from the semen of a dead man, or that the corpse of a dead man is able to secrete semen competent for procreation. There can be no doubt that the Merman is generated of two fishes, and that Nature, which delights in variety, gives him the form of a man is the upper parts: in the same way on land she has brought forth animals which resemble man, such as the monkey, and the Brazilian beast called the sloth, which is about the size of a fox, Raemond, Antichrist, c. 32.and is like a woman about the face and hair, except for its much misshapen muzzle.
With the leave of such eminent men, for whom I have the very highest respect and honour, I