ks, particularly one very remarkable. There are
carv'd upon an obelisk, a barber and a midwife; the barber delivers
his razor to the midwife, and she her swadling-cloaths to the barber.
Accordingly Thales Milesius (who like the rest of his countrymen,
borrow'd his learning from the Egyptians) after having computed the
time of this famous conjunction, "Then," says he, "shall men and women
mutually exchange the pangs of shaving and child-bearing."

Anaximander modestly describes this metamorphosis in mathematical terms:
"Then," says he, "shall the negative quantity of the women be turn'd
into positive, their - into +;" (i.e.) their minus into plus.

Plato not only speaks of this great change, but describes all the
preparations towards it. "Long before the bodily transformation, (says
he) nature shall begin the most difficult part of her work, by changing
the ideas and inclinations of the two sexes: Men shall turn effeminate,
and women manly; wives shall domineer, and husbands obey; ladies shall
ride a horseback, dress'd like cavaliers; princes and nobles appear in
night-rails and petticoats; men shall squeak upon theatres with female
voices, and women corrupt virgins; lords shall knot and cut paper; and
even the northern people.........:" A Greek phrase (which for modesty's
sake I forbear to translate) which denotes a vice too frequent amongst
us.

That the Ministry foresaw this great change, is plain from the
Callico-Act; whereby it is now become the occupation of women all
over England, to convert their useless female habits into beds,
window-curtains, chairs, and joint-stools; undressing themselves (as it
were) before their transformation.

The philosophy of this transformation will not seem surprizing to people
who search into the bottom of things. Madam Bourignon, a devout French
lady, has shewn us, how man was at first created male and female in
one individual, having the faculty of propagation within himself:
A circumstance necessary to the state of innocence, wherein a man's
happiness was not to depend upon the caprice of another. It was not till
after he had made a faux pas, that he had his female mate. Many such
transformations of individuals have been well attested; particularly
one by Montaigne, and another by the late Bishop of Salisbury. From
all which it appears, that this system of male and female has already
undergone and may hereafter suffer, several alterations. Every smatterer
in anatomy knows, tha