2. and
other authors, &c. To these may be added that sentence, Loue descendeth,
&c. So that you see, it is no lesse proper to a man entirely to loue his
children, then for a bird to flie: that if our writers at any time haue
confessed the Islanders to be men (muche lesse to be Christians,) they
must, will they nill they, ascribe vnto them this loue and affection
towardes their children: if not, they doe not onely take from them the
title and dignitie of men, but also they debase them vnder euery brute
beast, which euen by the instinct of nature are bound with exceeding great
loue, and tender affection towards their young ones.
I will not adde against this shamelesse vntruth most notable examples of
our owen countreymen: I will omit our lawes of man-stealing, more ancient
then the Islanders themselues, being receiued from the Noruagians, and are
extant in our booke of lawes vnder the title Manhelge cap. 5, Whosoeuer
selleth a free man (any man much more a sonne) vnto strangers, &c.
Now if any man be driuen to that hard fortune, that he must needs commit
his own sonne into the hands of some inhabitant or stranger, being vrged
thereunto by famine, or any other extreame necessity, that he may not be
constrained to see him hunger-starued for want of sustenance, but keepeth
his dogge still for his owne eating, this man is not to be sayd, that he
esteemeth equally or more basely of his sonne then of his dogge:
