88 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE 



mad pursuit of "a huge Flesh-Fly ", 76 which she has just received 

 from Mr. Lovely for dissection. 



"Lady Reveller, I am glad the poor Fly escaped; will you 



never be weary of these Whimsies? 



Valeria, Whimsies ! Natural Philosophy a Whimsey ! Oh the 



unlearned World. 



Lady Reveller, Ridiculous Learning! 



Alpiew, Ridiculous indeed, for Women, Philosophy suits our 



Sex as Jack-Boots would do 



Lady Reveller, My Stars! This Girl will be mad, that's cer 

 tain. 



Valeria, Mad! So Nero banished Philosophers from Rome, 

 and the first Discoverer of the Antipodes was condemned for 

 a heretic. 



Lady Reveller, In my Conscience, Alpiew, this pretty Creature 

 is Spoiled. Well, Cousin, might I advise, you should bestow 

 your Fortune in founding a College for the study of Philosophy, 

 where none but Women should be admitted". 77 

 A bluff sea captain, designed by her whimsical father for Val 

 eria's husband, is announced as just returned from foreign parts. 

 "Servant, Madam, here's Sir Richard, and a 

 Valeria, A What, is it an Accident, a Substance, a Material 

 Being, or a Being of Reason? 



Servant, I don't know what you call a Material Being, it is 

 a Man. 



Valeria, Pshaw, a Man, that's Nothing. 



Lady Reveller, She'll prove by and by, out of Descartes that 

 we are all Machines". 78 



When Valeria is left alone with the Captain, she distracts his wits 

 with her philosophical queries. 



"Valeria, I would have ask'd you, Sir, if you had the cur 

 iosity to inspect a Mermaid Or if you are convinc'd there is a 

 World in every Star We by our Telescopes, find Seas, Groves, 

 and Plains, and all that; but what they are peopled with, 

 there's the quere. 



Ibid. 

 "Ibid. 

 78 The Basset-Table, Act II, sc. 1. 



