AN AUGUSTAN REPRINT

Of A Publication On

The Levellers Movement

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, concerning Matrimony, proposing an Act for Enforcing Marriage, for the Equality of Matches, and Taxing single Persons. With the Danger of Celibacy to a Nation. Dedicated to a Member of Parliament. London, Printed and Sold by J. How, at the Seven Stars in Talbot-Court, in Grace-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 Encouragement of the Breed of English Cattle, which, I am told, has much raised the Price of Land in England. With Submission to your better Judgment, I think, An Act, for Increasing the Breed of Englishmen, would be far more advantageous to the Realm. Some say, That our Ships are the Walls of our Island; but I say, Our Men are the Walls, the Bulwarks, and Fortresses of our Country. You can have no Navies, nor Armies, without Men; and, like prudent Farmers, we ought always to keep our Land well stocked. England never prospered by the Importation of Foreigners, nor have we any Need of them, 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 are ready to go to Work for the Good of their Country, as soon as they shall have a legal Authority; of which, if you are the happy Instrument, you will have the Blessing of ten-thousand Damsels, and the 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, diverted themselves in the Evenings by walking to a certain Shadow, which they might justly call their own, being frequented by none but themselves and the harmonious Society of the Wood. Here they consumed the happy Minutes, 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 of the Commode and Top-knot, nor the Laws and Administration of the Attiring-room. They talked of nobler Subjects, of the Beauty and wonderful Creation of Almighty God, and of the Nature of Man, the Lord of the Universe, and of the whole Dominions of Nature. Pity it is we cannot procure all that these Ladies have so privately, as they thought, discoursed; but we are very happy in having what follows, which came to our Knowledge by a mere Accident. A Gentleman, lodging in the Neighbourhood, one Evening, taking a Walk for his Recreation, haply laid himself down behind a Hedge, near the very Shadow frequented by these Ladies; he had not lain long, before these Angels appeared at a Distance, and he, peeping through the Boughs (which served as a Telescope to bring the divine Objects nearer his View) was extremely ravished with their Beauty; but, alas! What was the Beauty of their Faces to that of their Minds, discovered to this happy Man by the soft and charming Eloquence of their Tongues? And no Man in the World was better qualified to give an Account of this noble Dialogue, than this Person, he being an accurate Short-hand Writer, and had been Pupil to Mr. Blainey in that Science, and very happily had, at that Time, Pen, Ink, and Paper about him; he heard with Amazement their Discourse on common Affairs, but, when the charming Sophia had fixed on a Subject, he began to write as follows:

Sophia. My dear Sister, How happy are we in this blessed Retirement, free from the Hurry of the noisy Town! Here we can contemplate on the Wonders of Nature, and on the Wisdom of the great Founder of the Universe. Do you see how the Leaves of this Thicket are grown, since we first retired to its Shadow? It now affords us a sufficient Shelter from the Heat of the Sun, from Storms, and Rain; see yonder Shrub, what Abundance of Cyons sprout from its Root? See yonder Ewes, with their pretty Lambs skipping and dancing by their Sides. How careful is Nature to propagate every Part of the Handywork of the Almighty! But you and I, my Politica, are useless Creatures, not answering the End of our Creation in the Propagation of our Species, for which, next the Service of our Creator, we came into the World. This is our Sin, and we ought to be Transgressors no longer.

Politica. Every Creature desires to propagate its Species, and Nature dictates to every Part of the Creation the Manner of doing it. The brute Beasts are subservient to this Law, and wholly answer the End of their Creation: Now there is the same Desire in Mankind; but we, who are endowed with noble Faculties, and who have Countenances erected to behold the Wonders of God in the Firmament of Heaven, look so far into the Earth, that we sink beneath the Dignity of Beasts. In being averse to Generation, we offer Violence to the Laws of God and Nature imprinted on our Minds. What she can say, that Nature does not prompt her to the Propagation of her Species? Which, indeed, is one Argument of the Immortality of the Soul; for the rational Faculties concur with the Dictates of Nature in this Point. We are, as it were, immortal upon Earth, in our surviving Children. It is a Sort of Hyperbole, but it is as near Truth as possibly can be. We are all of us desirous of Life; and, since, being mortal, we cannot for ever inhabit this glorious World, we are willing to leave our Children in Possession.

I cannot agree with you, Madam, that it is our Fault we do not propagate our Species, at least, I am sure, it is none of mine; I am young, and healthy, and beautiful enough, and Nature daily tells me what Work I ought to do; the Laws of God circumscribe the Doing of it; and yet, notwithstanding my Conformity to both, you know, my Circumstances will not admit of Marriage.

Sophia. The Impulse of Nature in me, in that Respect, is as great as it can be in you, but still under the Regulations of the strictest Rules of Virtue. The End of our Creation might be better answered, were not the matrimonial Knot to be tied only by the Purse-string. I can say, I am young and beautiful, and that without any Vanity. This Mr. H—— knows well enough; he loves me intirely, and, I am sure, had rather live all his Life-time with me in a Garret, on the Scrag-end of a Neck of Mutton, than with the Lady his Father proposes; but the old Curmudgeon will not let his Son have the least Thoughts of me, because the Muck, my Father has left me, will not fill so many Dung-carts, as he can fill for his Son: It is even true, what the Parson said, 'Matrimony is become a Matter of Money.' This is the Reason, that you and I stick on Hand so long, as the Tradesmen at London say, when they cannot put off their Daughters.

Politica. Matrimony is, indeed, become a mere Trade; they carry their Daughters to Smithfield, as they do Horses, and sell to the highest Bidder. Formerly, I have heard, nothing went current in the Matrimonial Territories, but Birth and Blood; but, alas! this was in the antiquated Times, when Virtue and