Sentence:  In this metropolis a number of lurking leeches infamously gain a subsistence by practising on the credulity of women, pretending to cast <WSD>nativities</WSD>, to use the technical phrase; and many females who, proud of their rank and fortune, look down on the vulgar with sovereign contempt, show by this credulity, that the distinction is arbitrary, and that they have not sufficiently cultivated their minds to rise above vulgar prejudices. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Someone's birth considered as a means of astrology; a horoscope associated with a person's birth. (from 14th c.)