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
grooms of the bed-chamber (then maids of honour) would not eat
chalk and lime in their green-sickness: And in general, that the
men would remember they are become retromingent, and not by
inadvertency lift up against walls and posts.
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