“What say ye to this now? are there not many husbands do ye think (if the truth were known) that father more children than their own? Believe me, friend, a man had need have good security upon a woman’s belly, for children are commonly made in the dark, and ’tis no easy matter to know the workman, especially having nothing but the woman’s bare word for’t. This is meant of the court of assistance; and whoever interprets my prophecies to the prejudice of any person of honour, abuses me. You little think what a world of our gay folks in their coaches and six, with lackeys at their heels by the dozens, will be found at the last day, to be only the bastards of some pages, gentlemen-ushers, or _valets de chambre_ of the family; nay perchance the physician may have had his hand in the wrong box, and in case of a necessity, good use has been made of a lusty coachman. Little do you think (I say) how many noble families upon that grand discovery, will be found extinct for want of issue.” “I am now convinced,” said I to the mathematician, “of the excellency of your predictions; and I perceive (since you have been pleased to be your own interpreter) that they have more weight in them than we were aware of.” “Ye shall have one more,” quoth he, “and I have done. “This year, if I’ve any skill i’ th’ weather, Shall many a one take wing with a feather. “I dare say that your wit will serve ye now to imagine, that I’m talking of rooks and jackdaws; but I say, No. I speak of lawyers, attorneys, clerks, scriveners, and their fellows, that with the dash of a pen can defeat their clients of their estates, and fly away with them when they have done.”