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С НА Р. V.

INCES T.

IN

N order to preserve chastity in families, and between perfons of different fexes brought up and living together in a ftate of unreferved intimacy, it is neceffary by every method poffible to inculcate an abhorrence of incestuous conjunctions; which abhorrence can only be upheld by the abfolute reprobation of all commerce of the fexes between near relations. Upon this principle, the marriage as well as other cohabitation of brothers and fifters, of lineal kindred, and of all who usually live in the same family, may be faid to be forbidden by the law of

nature.

Restrictions which extend to remoter degrees of kindred than what this reafon makes it necessary to prohibit from intermarriage, are founded in the authority of the pofitive law which ordains them, and can only be juftified by their tendency to diffuse wealth, to connect families, or promote fome political advantage.

*

The Levitical law, which is received in this country, and from which the rule of the Roman law differs very little, prohibits marriage between relations within three degrees of kindred; computing the generations not from but through the common an

The Roman law continued the prohibition to the defcendants of brothers and fifters without limits. In the Levitical and Englib law, there is nothing to hinder a man from marrying his great niece.

ceftor,

ceftor, and accounting affinity the fame as confanguinity. The iffue, however, of fuch marriages are not baftardized, unless the parents be divorced during their life-time.

allowed of the Amongst the prevailed; bro-'

The Egyptians are faid to have marriage of brothers and fifters. Athenians a very fingular regulation thers and fifters of the half blood, if related by the father's fide, might marry; if by the mother's fide, they were prohibited from marrying. The fame cuftom alfo probably obtained in Chaldæa fo early as the age in which Abraham left it; for he and Sarah his wife ftood in this relation to each other. "And yet indeed, she is my fitter, fhe is the daugh"ter of my father, but not of my mother, and the "became my wife. Gen. xx. 12.

СНАР.

TH

CHA P. VI.

POLYGAMY.

HE equality in the number of males and females born into the world intimates the intention of God, that one woman fhould be affigned to one man; for if to one man be allowed an exclufive right to five or more women, four or more men must be deprived of the exclufive poffeffion of any; which could never be the order intended.

It seems also a fignificant indication of the divine will, that he at firft created only one woman to one man. Had God intended polygamy for the fpecies, it is probable he would have begun with it; especially as by giving to Adam more wives than one, the multiplication of the human race would have proceeded with a quicker progrefs.

Polygamy not only violates the conftitution of nature, and the apparent defign of the Deity, but produces to the parties themselves, and to the public, the following bad effects; contefts and jealoufies amongst the wives of the fame hufband; diftracted affections, or the lofs of all affection in the husband himfelf; a voluptuoufnefs in the rich which diffolves the vigour of their intellectual as well as active faculties; producing that indolence and imbecility both of mind and body, which have long characterized the nations of the Eaft; the abasement of one half of the human fpecies, who, in countries where polygamy obtains, are degraded into mere inftruments of phyfical pleasure to the other half; neg lect of children; and the manifold, and fometimes

This equality is not exact. The number of male infants, exceeds that of females in the proportion of nineteen to eighteen, or thereabouts; which excels provides for the greater confumption of males by war, feafeating, and other dangerous or unhealthy Occupations.

unnatural

unnatural mischiefs, which arife from a fcarcity of women. To compenfate for thefe evils, polygamy does not offer a fingle advantage. In the article of population, which it has been thought to promote, the community gain nothing for the question is not, whether one man will have more children by five or more wives than by one, but whether thefe five wives would not bear the fame, or a greater number of children, to five feparate husbands. And as to the care of the children when produced, and the fending of them into the world in fituations in which they may be likely to form and bring up families of their own, upon which the increase and fucceffion of the human species in a great degree depend; this is lefs provided for, and less practicable, where twenty or thirty children are to be fupported by the attention and fortunes of one father, than if they were divided into five or fix families, to each of which were affigned the industry and inheritance of two parents.

Whether fimultaneous polygamy was permitted by the law of Mofes, feems doubtful:+ but whether permitted or not, it was certainly practised by the Jewish patriarchs, both before that law, and

* Nothing, I mean, compared with a state in which marriage is pearly univerfal. Where marriages are lefs general, and many women unfruitful from the want of hufbands, polygamy might at first add a little to population; and but a little for as a variety of wives would be fought chiefly from temptations of voluptuoufness, it would rather increase the demand for fema beauty, than for the fex at large. And this little would foon be made lefs by many deductions. For firftly, as none but the opulent can maintain a plurality of wives, where polygamy obtains, the rich indulge in it, while the reft take up with a vague and barren incontinency. And fecondly, women would grow lefs jealous of their virtue, when they had nothing for which to referve it, but a chamber in the Haram; when their chastity was no longer to be rewarded with the rights and happiness of a wife, as enjoyed under the marriage of one woman to one man. Thefe confiderations may be added to what is mentioned in the text, concerning the eafy and early fettlement of children in the world.

† See Deut. xvii. 16, xxi. 15.

under

under it. The permiffion, if there was any, might be like that of divorce, " for the hardnefs of their "heart," in condefcenfion to their established indulgencies, rather than from the general rectitude or propriety of the thing itself. The state of manners in Judaa had probably undergone a reformation in this refpect before the time of Chrift, for in the New Teftament we meet with no trace or mention of any fuch practice being tolerated.

For which reafon, and because it was likewise forbidden amongst the Greeks and Romans, we cannot expect to find any exprefs law upon the subject in the Chriftian code. The words of Christ, Matt. xix. 9, may be construed by an eafy implication to prohibit polygamy; for, if "whoever put

teth away his wife, and marricth another, com"mitteth adultery," he who marrieth another without putting away the firft, is no lefs guilty of adultery; because the adultery does not confift in the repudiation of the first wife (for however unjuft or cruel that may be, it is not adultery), but in entering into a fecond marriage, during the legal existence and obligation of the firft. The feveral paffages in St. Paul's writings, which speak of marriage, always fuppofe it to fignify the union of one man with one woman. Upon this fuppofition he argues, Rom. vii. 2, 3. "Know ye not, brethren, "for I fpeak to them that know the law, how that "the law hath dominion over a man, as long as he

liveth? for the woman which hath an husband, is "bound by the law to her husband fo long as he "liveth; but if the hufband be dead, the is loofed "from the law of her husband; fo then, if while "her husband liveth fhe be married to another "man, the fhall be called an adulterefs," When the fame Apostle permits marriage to his Corinthian converts (which, "for the prefent diftrefs," he

"I fay unto you, whofoever fhall put away his wife, except "it be for fornication, and fhall marry another, committeth adultery."

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