the quondam father
can be no more than a dry nurse.

This wonderful transformation is the instrument of nature, to balance
matters between the sexes. The cruelty of scornful mistresses shall be
return'd; the slighted maid shall grow into an imperious gallant, and
reward her undoer with a big belly, and a bastard.

It is hardly possible to imagine the revolutions that this wonderful
phaenomenon will occasion over the face of the earth. I long impatiently
to see the proceedings of the Parliament of Paris, as to the title
of succession to the crown, this being a case not provided for by the
salique law. There will be no preventing disorders amongst friars and
monks; for certainly vows of chastity do not bind but under the sex in
which they were made. The same will hold good with marriages, tho' I
think it will be a scandal amongst Protestants for husbands and wives
to part, since there remains still a possibility to perform the debitus
conjugale, by the husband being femme couverte. I submit it to the
judgment of the gentlemen of the long robe, whether this transformation
does not discharge all suits of rapes?

The Pope must undergo a new groping; but the false prophet Mahomet has
contriv'd matters well for his successors; for as the Grand Signior
has now a great many fine women, he will then have as many fine young
gentelmen, at his devotion.

These are surprizing scenes; but I beg leave to affirm, that the solemn
operations of nature are subjects of contemplation, not of ridicule.
Therefore I make it my earnest request to the merry fellows, and
giggling girls about town, that they would not put themselves in a high
twitter, when they go to visit a general lying-in of his first child;
his officers serving as midwives, nurses and rockers dispensing caudle;
or if they behold the reverend prelates dressing the heads and airing
the linnen at court, I beg they will remember that these offices must be
fill'd with people of the greatest regularity, and best characters. For
the same reason, I am sorry that a certain prelate, who notwithstanding
his confinement (in December 1723), still preserves his healthy,
chearful countenance, cannot come in time to be a nurse at court.

I likewise earnestly intreat the maids of honour, (then ensigns and
captains of the guard) that, at their first setting out, they have some
regard to their former station, and do not run wild through all the
infamous houses about town: That the present gr