Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 17.djvu/306

300 into the blood; and when the sun is among the horned signs, may produce such a spirit of unchastity, as is dangerous to the honour of your worships families.

That mankind living much upon the seeds and other parts of plants, these being impregnated with the sunbeams, may vegetate and grow in the bowels, a thing of more dangerous consequence to human bodies than breeding of worms; and this will fall heaviest upon the poor, who live upon roots; and the weak and sickly, who live upon barley and ricegruel, &c. for which we are ready to produce to your honours the opinions of eminent physicians, that the taste and property of the victuals is much altered to the worse by the said solar cookery, the fricassees being deprived of the hauf gout they acquire by being dressed over charcoal.

Lastly, Should it happen by an eclipse of an extraordinary length, that this city should be deprived of the sunbeams for several months; how will his majesty's subjects subsist in the interim, when common cookery, with the arts depending upon it, is totally lost?

In consideration of these, and many other inconveniences your petitioners humbly pray, that your honours would either totally prohibit the confining and manufacturing the sunbeams for any of the useful purposes of life, or in the ensuing parliament procure a tax to be laid upon them, which may answer both the duty and price of coals, and which we humbly conceive cannot be less than thirty shillings per yard square; reserving the sole right and privilege of the