Observations Natural and Moral, Chapter 18
CHAP. XVIII. Of the weaning of Children.
1 Sam. 1.22. I will not goe up untill the child be weaned.
THe next duety of a woman after that ſhe hath nurſed her child is to weane it, as Anna did Samuel. foreign … lactatio.The time when the Iewiſh women weaned their children was when they were three yeares old; 2 Macch. 7.27. The mother ſayd to her ſonne, have pittie upon me who carried thee nine moneths in my bellie, and gave thee ſucke for three yeares.
Some Phyſitians hold that to ſuffer a child to ſucke three yeares maketh him dull and unfit for learning, Ʋalefius cap. 28.and therefore it is fit that hee bee weaned ſooner; and Valeſius holdeth that the three yeares ſpoke of in 2 Mac. 27. are meant onelyonly of two compleate yeares, and that in the beginning of the third yeare ſhe weaned her child, and that it was annus currens & non completus: but this ſeemeth to be a ſtrained ſenſe, for as nine moneths are taken for full 9 moneths, not for the eight compleat and the ninth begun, ſo yeares here are taken for three compleat yeares, & not for two compleat yeares, & the third begun. The Lawyers take Biduum ſometimes for a compleate day and the next begun, and the Civilians uſe this reckning ſomtimes; but the Phyſitians in reckoning of natural daies, they reckon to the ful & compleat time, and it is more probable that in the firſt ages they were longer before they weaned their childrē than now.
Petrus Comeſtor obſerveth upon 1 Sam. 1.3. that they had a threefold weaning of their children in old times, The Iewes had a threefeld weaning their children.firſt when they weaned them from their mothers milke, when they were three yeares old: the ſecond weaning he maketh to be, when the child was weaned from his tender age, and the eare of his dry nurſe; and this was when he was ſeven yeares old. The third ſort of weaning he maketh to be this, when he is weaned from his childiſh manners, and his Pedagogie, and this is done when he is twelve yeares of age; and hee addeth further that there is a proper weaning and a metaphoricall weaning, ablactatio propria metaphoricathe proper weaning was when the child was three yeares old, and the metaphoricall when hee was twelve; and Comeſtor ſaith, when it is ſayd of Anna that ſhe weaned her ſon Samuel, it is to be underſtood of this metaphoricall weaning when hee was twelve yeare old, and fit to ſerve in the Temple; when he needed no more the eare of his mother after that ſhe had offered him to the Lord.
But the text maketh this cleare, that this weaning of Samuel is not taken metaphorically here but in the proper ſenſe, 1 Sam. 1.23. ſhe brought him into the houſe of the Lord after ſhe weaned him, ſhe had need to carrie him, becauſe he was not as yet able to goe of himſelfe; and the text ſaith, 1 Sam. 1.24. puer erat puer, foreignthe repetition of the word ſheweth that he was a verie little child: & 1 Sam. 2. verſe 19. his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from yeare to yeare. And to this ſort of weaning David alludeth Pſal. 131.2. Surely I have behaved and quieted my ſelfe as a child that is weaned of his mother. 1 Sam. 1.28. foreign tum pluralis numeri, ut hic, vel ſingularis numeri cum affixe, Gen. 47.31.Vaijſhtachu ſhould bee tranſlated incurvarunt ſe, to wit Elkana and Anna, and not incurvavii ſe, to wit Samuel being as yet but a little child.
The heathen kept a feaſt, when they were borne, Pharao kept a feaſt on his birth day Gen. 40.20. Mark. 6.21.and Herod made a ſupper to his Lords one his birth day.
The Iewes made a feaſt when they weaned their children and not one their birth day, Eccleſ. 7.1. The Iewes made a feſt at the day of their death and not at their birth.Better is the day of death than the day of ones birth, & cap. 4.3. Therefor I praiſe the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive: Yea better is he than both they, which hath not yet beene, who hath not ſeene the evill which is done under the ſunne. The councell of Toled obſerved that Chriſt wept not at Lazarus death but at his riſing againe: and Chriſt ſaith, Ioh. 14.28. If ye loved me ye would rejoyce becauſe I ſayd I goe to my Father. The fathers called the day of the martyres death foreign becauſe then they got to the land of the living, Origen. lib. 3. in Iob.there was no cauſe then why to keepe a feaſt on their birth day. They keeped the feaſt when they weaned their children Gen. 21.8. becauſe their children then were paſt the greateſt danger: the greekes called this foreign , and the feaſt they called the teeth feaſt, Macrobius lib. 1. foreign productio dentium ab foreign & foreign .de ſomuo Scipionis, and they were glad that the children had no need of milke but of ſtrong meate then, as the Apoſtle ſpeaketh in another ſenſe, Heb. 5.12. Concluſion.
The concluſion of this is, ſome unnaturall mothers will not take paines to nuriſh their children, and they faile in the one extremitie. So there are ſome ſottiſh mothers who ſuffer their children to ſucke too long, and they fall in the other extremitie. For although in the firſt ages when they lived ſo long, they ſuffered them to ſucke for three yeares, yet our dayes being ſhortned, they ſhould not take up ſo much of their childrens age in giving them ſucke.