88 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE 



mad pursuit of "a huge Flesh-Fly","* 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 Wliimsies ? 



Valeria, — Whimsies ! Natural Philosophy a Wliimsey ! 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"." 

 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 ".^^ 

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

 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. 



'9 Ibid. . 



■" Ibid. 



''^The Basset-Table, Act II, sc. 1. 



