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An Extract of
Of A Publication On
Found in the late
EARL of OXFORD's LIBRARY.
AUTHOR: ANONYMOUS
PUBLISHED IN 1745
LONDON:
Printed for T. OSBORNE, in Gray's-Inn. Mdccxlv.
The Levellers: A Dialogue between two young Ladies, concerningMatrimony, proposing an Act for Enforcing Marriage, for the Equality ofMatches, and Taxing single Persons. With the Danger of Celibacy to aNation. Dedicated to a Member of Parliament. London, Printed and Soldby J. How, at the Seven Stars in Talbot-Court, inGrace-church-street, 1703. Quarto, containing thirty-two Pages.
An Epistle to a Member of Parliament.
Honoured Sir,
Our Fore-fathers, if not now in Being, have passed an Act,prohibiting the Importation of Foreign, and for the Encouragementof the Breed of English Cattle, which, I am told, has much raisedthe Price of Land in England. With Submission to your betterJudgment, I think, An Act, for Increasing the Breed of Englishmen,would be far more advantageous to the Realm. Some say, That ourShips are the Walls of our Island; but I say, Our Men are theWalls, the Bulwarks, and Fortresses of our Country. You can have noNavies, nor Armies, without Men; and, like prudent Farmers, weought always to keep our Land well stocked. England neverprospered by the Importation of Foreigners, nor have we any Need ofthem, when we can raise a Breed of our own.
What you have here presented, is a Discourse of two young Ladies,who, you find, are very willing to comply with such an Act, and areready to go to Work for the Good of their Country, as soon as theyshall have a legal Authority; of which, if you are the happyInstrument, you will have the Blessing of ten-thousand Damsels, andthe Thanks of
Your humble Servant.
POLITICA.
Politica and Sophia, two young Ladies of great Beauty and Wit,having taken Lodgings together, this Summer, in the Country, divertedthemselves in the Evenings by walking to a certain Shadow, which theymight justly call their own, being frequented by none but themselves andthe harmonious Society of the Wood. Here they consumed the happyMinutes, not in idle Chat peculiar to the Ladies of the Court and City;they did not dispute the Manner of Dressing, the Beauties and Foil ofthe Commode and Top-knot, nor the Laws and Administration of theAttiring-room. They talked of nobler Subjects, of the Beauty andwonderful Creation of Almighty God, and of the Nature of Man, the Lordof the Universe, and of the whole Dominions of Nature. Pity it is wecannot procure all that these Ladies have so privately, as they thought,discoursed; but we are very happy in having what follows, which came toour Knowledge by a mere Accident. A Gentleman, lodging in theNeighbourhood, one Evening, taking a Walk for his Recreation, haply laidhimself down behind a Hedge, near the very Shadow frequented by theseLadies; he had not lain long, before these Angels appeared at aDistance, and he, peeping through t