Sentences such as "" make it clear that swift's satire in "a modest proposal" is not horatian but juvenalian. a. it is true, a child just dropt from its dam, may be supported by her milk, for a solar year, with little other nourishment, at most not above the value of two shillings . . b. how this number shall be reared, and provided for, which, as i have already said, under the present situation of affairs, is utterly impossible by all the methods hitherto proposed . . c. i am assured by our merchants, that a boy or a girl before twelve years old, is no saleable commodity, and even when they come to this age, they will not yield above three pounds, or three pounds and half a crown at most . . d. i have reckoned upon a medium, that a child just born will weigh 12 pounds, and in a solar year, if tolerably nursed encreaseth to 28 pounds.