if while her husband liveth she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress." When the same apostle permits marriage to his Corinthian converts (which, " for the present distress," he judges to be inconvenient,) he restrains the permission to the marriage of one husband with one wife :-" It is good for a man not to touch a woman; nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband."

question is not, whether one man will have more children by five or more wives than by one; but whether these five wives would not bear the same or a greater number of children to five separate husbands. And as to the care of the children, when produced, and the sending of them into the world in situations in which they may be likely to form and bring up families of their own, upon which the increase and succession of the human species in a great degree depend; this is less provided for, and less practicable, where twenty or thir. ty children are to be supported by the attention and fortunes of one father, than if they were divided into five or six families, to each of which were assigned the industry and in-effects of polygamy, or, if they did perceive heritance of two parents.

The manners of different countries have varied in nothing more than in their domestic constitutions. Less polished and more luxu. rious nations have either not perceived the bad

them, they who in such countries possessed the Whether simultaneous polygamy was per- power of reforming the laws have been unwilmitted by the law of Moses, seems doubtful; ling to resign their own gratifications. Polybut whether permitted or not, it was certainly gamy is retained at this day among the Turks, practised by the Jewish patriarchs, both before and throughout every part of Asia, in which that law, and under it. The permission, if Christianity is not professed. In Christian there were any, might be like that of divorce, countries, it is universally prohibited. In "for the hardness of their heart," in conde- Sweden, it is punished with death. In Engscension to their established indulgences, ra- land, besides the nullity of the second mar. ther than from the general rectitude or pro- riage, it subjects the offender to transporta. priety of the thing itself. The state of man- tion, or imprisonment and branding, for the ners in Judea had probably undergone a refor-first offence, and to capital punishment for the mation in this respect before the time of Christ, for in the New Testament we meet with no trace or mention of any such practice being tolerated.

second. And whatever may be said in behalf of polygamy when it is authorised by the law of the land, the marriage of a second wife du. ring the life-time of the first, in countries where such a second marriage is void, must be ranked with the most dangerous and cruel of those frauds, by which a woman is cheated out of her fortune, her person, and her happiness. The ancient Medes compelled their citizens, in one canton, to take seven wives; in another, each woman to receive five husbands : according as war had made, in one quarter of their country, an extraordinary havoc among the men, or the women had been carried away by an enemy from another. This regulation so far as it was adapted to the proportion which subsisted between the number of males this females, was founded in the reason upon which the most approved nations of Europe proceed at present.

For which reason, and because it was likewise forbidden amongst the Greeks and Romans, we cannot expect to find any express law upon the subject in the Christian code. The words of Christ + (Matt. xix. 9.) may be construed, by an easy implication, to prohibit polygamy: for, if "whoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery," he who marrieth another without putting away the first, is no less guilty of adultery: because the adultery does not consist in the repudiation of the first wife (for, however unjust or cruel that may be, it is not adultery,) but in entering into a second marriage during the legal existence and obligation of the first. The several passages in St. Paul's writings, which speak of marriage, always suppose it to Cæsar found amongst the inhabitants of this signify the union of one man with one woman. island a species of polygamy, if it may be so Upon this supposition he argues, Rom. vii. 1, called, which was perfectly singular. Uxores, 2, 3." Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to says he, habent deni duodenique inter se comthem that know the law,) how that the law munes; et maxime fratres cum fratribus, parhath dominion over a man, as long as he liv-entesque cum liberis: sed si qui sint ex his nati, eth? For the woman which hath an husband, eorum habentur liberi, quo primum virgo quæque is bound by the law to her husband so long as deducta est. he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband: so then,

ger to be rewarded with the rights and happiness of a wife, as enjoyed under the marriage of one woman to one man. These considerations may be added to what is mentioned in the text, concerning the easy and early settlement of children in the world.

* See Deut. xvii. 17; xxi. 15.

+ I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery."

CHAPTER VII,

OF DIVORCE.

By divorce, I mean the dissolution of the marriage-contract, by the act, and at the will of the husband.

G

This power was allowed to the husband, among the Jews, the Greeks, and latter Romans; and is at this day exercised by the Turks and Persians.

The congruity of such a right with the law of nature, is the question before us.

There is great weight and substance in both these considerations. An earlier termination of the union would produce a separate interest. The wife would naturally look forward to the dissolution of the partnership, and endeavour to draw to herself a fund against the time when she was no longer to have access to the same resources. This would beget peculation on one side, and mistrust on the other; evils which at present very little disturb the confidence of a married life. The se

And, in the first place, it is manifestly inconsistent with the duty which the parents owe to their children; which duty can never be so well fulfilled as by their cohabitation and united care. It is also incompatible with the right which the mother possesses, as well as the fa-cond effect of making the union determinable ther, to the gratitude of her children and the comfort of their society; of both which she is almost necessarily deprived, by her dismission from her husband's family.

only by death, is not less beneficial. It necessarily happens that adverse tempers, habits, and tastes, oftentimes meet in marriage. In which case, each party must take pains to give Where this objection does not interfere, I up what offends, and practise what may graknow of no principle of the law of nature ap-tify the other. A man and woman in ove plicable to the question, beside that of general expediency.

For, if we say, that arbitrary divorces are excluded by the terms of the marriage-contract, it may be answered, that the contract might be so framed as to admit of this condition.

If we argue, with some moralists, that the obligation of a contract naturally continues, so long as the purpose, which the contracting parties had in view, requires its continuance; it will be difficult to show what purpose of the contract (the care of children excepted) should confine a man to a woman, from whom he seeks to be loose.

If we contend, with others, that a contract cannot, by the law of nature, be dissolved, unless the parties be replaced in the situation which each possessed before the contract was entered into; we shall be called upon to prove this to be an universal or indispensable property of contracts.

I confess myself unable to assign any circumstance in the marriage-contract, which essentially distinguishes it from other contracts, or which proves that it contains, what many have ascribed to it, a natural incapacity of being dissolved by the consent of the parties, at the option of one of them, or either of them. But if we trace the effects of such a rule upon the general happiness of married life, we shall perceive reasons of expediency, that abundantly justify the policy of those laws which refuse to the husband the power of divorce, or restrain it to a few extreme and specific provocations: and our principles teach us to pronounce that to be contrary to the law of nature, which can be proved to be detrimental to the common happiness of the human species.

with each other, do this insensibly; but love is neither general nor durable; and where that is wanting, no lessons of duty, no delicacy of sentiment, will go half so far with the generality of mankind and womankind as this one intelligible reflection, that they must each make the best of their bargain; and that, seeing they must either both be miserable, or both share in the same happiness, neither can find their own comfort but in promoting the pleasure of the other. These compliances, though at first extorted by necessity, become in time easy and mutual; and, though less endearing than assiduities which take their rise from af. fection, generally procure to the married pair a repose and satisfaction sufficient for their happiness.

II. Because new objects of desire would be continually sought after, if men could, at will, be released from their subsisting engagements. Suppose the husband to have once preferred his wife to all other women, the duration of this preference cannot be trusted to. Possession makes a great difference: and there is no other security against the invitations of novelty, than the known impossibility of obtain ing the object. Did the cause which brings the sexes together, hold them together by the same force with which it first attracted them to each other; or could the woman be restored to her personal integrity, and to all the advan. tages of her virgin estate; the power of divorce might be deposited in the hands of the husband, with less danger of abuse or inconveniency. But constituted as mankind are, and injured as the repudiated wife generally must be, it is necessary to add a stability to the condition of married women, more secure than the continuance of their husbands' affection and to supply to both sides, by a sense of duty and of obligation, what satiety has impaired of passion and of personal attachment. Upon the whole, the power of divorce is evidently and greatly to the disadvantage of the woman: and I. Because this tends to preserve peace and the only question appears to be, whether the concord between married persons, by perpe- real and permanent happiness of one half of the tuating their common interest, and by induc-species should be surrendered to the caprice ing a necessity of mutual compliance.

A lawgiver, whose counsels are directed by views of general utility, and obstructed by no local impediment, would make the marriagecontract indissoluble during the joint lives of the parties, for the sake of the following advantages:

and voluptuousness of the other?

We have considered divorces as depending upon the will of the husband, because that is the way in which they have actually obtained in many parts of the world: but the same objections apply, in a great degree, to divorces by mutual consent; especially when we consider the indelicate situation and small prospect of happiness, which remains to the party who opposed his or her dissent to the liberty and desire of the other.

vorces to the single case of adultery in the wife. And I see no sufficient reason to depart from the plain and strict meaning of Christ's words. The rule was new. It both surprised and offended his disciples; yet Christ added nothing to relax or explain it.

Inferior causes may justify the separation o husband and wife, although they will not au thorise such a dissolution of the marriage. contract as would leave either party at liberty to marry again: for it is that liberty, in which the danger and mischief of divorces principally consist. If the care of children does not re

The law of nature admits of an exception in favour of the injured party, in cases of adultery, of obstinate desertion, of attempts upon life, of outrageous cruelty, of incurable mad-quire that they should live together, and it is ness, and perhaps of personal imbecility; but become, in the serious judgment of both, neby no means indulges the same privilege to cessary for their mutual happiness that they mere dislike, to opposition of humours and in- should separate, let them separate by consent. clinations, to contrariety of taste and temper, Nevertheless, this necessity can hardly exist, to complaints of coldness, neglect, severity, without guilt and misconduct on one side or peevishness, jealousy: not that these reasons on both. Moreover, cruelty, ill usage, extreme are trivial, but because such objections may al-violence, or moroseness of temper, or other ways be alleged, and are impossible by testimony to be ascertained; so that to allow implicit credit to them, and to dissolve marriages whenever either party thought fit to pretend them, would lead in its effect to all the licentiousness of arbitrary divorces.

great and continued provocations, make it law. ful for the party aggrieved to withdraw from the society of the offender without his or her consent. The law which imposes the marriage. vow, whereby the parties promise to "keep to each other," or in other words, to live toMilton's story is well known. Upon a quar-gether, must be understood to impose it with rel with his wife, he paid his addresses to an- a silent reservation of these cases; because the other woman, and set forth a public vindica- same law has constituted a judicial relief from tion of his conduct, by attempting to prove, the tyranny of the husband, by the divorce à that confirmed dislike was as just a founda- mensa et toro, and by the provision which it tion for dissolving the marriage-contract, as makes for the separate maintenance of the inadultery: to which position, and to all the ar-jured wife. St. Paul likewise distinguishes guments by which it can be supported, the between a wife's merely separating herself above consideration affords a sufficient answer. from the family of her husband, and her mar. And if a married pair, in actual and irrecon- rying again :-" Let not the wife depart from. cileable discord, complain that their happiness her husband: but and if she do depart, let he would be better consulted, by permitting them remain unmarried." to determine a connexion which is become odious to both, it may be told them, that the same permission, as a general rule, would produce libertinism, dissension, and misery, amongst thousands, who are now virtuous, and quiet, and happy, in their condition: and it ought to satisfy them to reflect, that when their happiness is sacrificed to the operation of an unrelenting rule, it is sacrificed to the happiness of the community.

The law of this country, in conformity to our Saviour's injunction, confines the dissolution of the marriage-contract to the single case of adultery in the wife; and a divorce even in that case, can only be brought about by the operation of an act of parliament, founded upon a previous sentence in the ecclesiastical court, and a verdict against the adulterer at common law: which proceedings taken together, compose as complete an investigation of The Scriptures seem to have drawn the obli- the complaint as a cause can receive. It has gation tighter than the law of nature left it. lately been proposed to the legislature to an"Whosoever," saith Christ, "shall put away nex a clause to these acts, restraining the of his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall fending party from marrying with the commarry another, committeth adultery; and panion of her crime, who, by the course of whoso marrieth her which is put away, doth proceeding, is always known and convicted: commit adultery."-Matt. xix. 9. The law for there is reason to fear, that adulterous conof Moses, for reasons of local expediency, per-nexions are often formed with the prospect of mitted the Jewish husband to put away his wife: but whether for every cause, or for what causes, appears to have been controverted amongst the interpreters of those times. Christ, the precepts of whose religion were calculated for more general use and observation, revokes this permission (as given to the Jews" for the hardness of their hearts"), and promulges a law which was thenceforward to confine di

bringing them to this conclusion; at least, when the seducer has once captivated the affection of a married woman, he may avail himself of this tempting argument to subdue her scruples, and complete his victory; and the legislature, as the business is managed at present, assists by its interposition the criminal design of the offenders, and confers a privilege where it ought to inflict a punishment. The

proposal deserved an experiment: but some- in the persons of our first parents, or merely thing more penal will, I apprehend, be found from a design to impress the obligation of the necessary to check the progress of this alarm-marriage-contract with a solemnity suited to ing depravity. Whether a law might not be its importance, the marriage-rite, in almost all framed directing the fortune of the adulteress to countries of the world, has been made a relidescend as in case of her natural death; reserv-gious ceremony; although marriage, in its ing, however, a certain proportion of the pro- own nature, and abstracted from the rules and duce of it, by way of annuity, for her subsist- declarations which the Jewish and Christian ence (such annuity, in no case, to exceed a Scriptures deliver concerning it, be properly a fixed sum), and also so far suspending the civil contract, and nothing more. estate in the hands of the heir as to preserve the inheritance to any children she might bear to a second marriage, in case there was none to succeed in the place of their mother by the first; whether, I say, such a law would not render female virtue in higher life less vincible, as well as the seducers of that virtue less urgent in their suit, we recommend to the deliberation of those who are willing to attempt the reformation of this important, but most incorrigible, class of the community. A passion for splendor, for expensive amusements and distinction, is commonly found, in that description of women who would become the objects of such a law, not less inordinate than their other appetites. A severity of the kind Our business is with marriage, as it is esta we propose, applies immediately to that pas-blished in this country. And in treating theresion. And there is no room for any complaint of, it will be necessary to state the terms of of injustice, since the provisions above stated, the marriage vow, in order to discover :— with others which might be contrived, confine 1. What duties this vow creates. the punishment, so far as it is possible, to the 2. What a situation of mind at the time is person of the offender; suffering the estate to inconsistent with it. remain to the heir, or within the family, of the ancestor from whom it came, or to attend the appointments of his will.

With respect to one main article in matrimonial alliances, a total alteration has taken place in the fashion of the world; the wife now brings money to her husband, whereas anciently the husband paid money to the family of the wife; as was the case among the Jewish patriarchs, the Greeks, and the old inhabitants of Germanyt. This alteration has proved of no small advantage to the female sex: for their importance in point of fortune procures to them, in modern times, that assiduity and respect, which are always wanted to compensate for the inferiority of their strength; but which their personal attractions would not always secure.

3. By what subsequent behaviour it is violated.

The husband promises, on his part, 66 to Sentences of the ecclesiastical courts, which love, comfort, honour, and keep, his wife:" release the parties à vinculo matrimonii by rea- the wife on hers, " to obey, serve, love, hoson of impuberty, frigidity, consanguinity with- nour, and keep, her husband;" in every vain the prohibited degrees, prior marriage, or riety of health, fortune, and condition: and want of the requisite consent of parents and both stipulate "to forsake all others, and to guardians, are not dissolutions of the marriage- keep only unto one another, so long as they contract, but judicial declarations that there both shall live." This promise is called the never was any marriage; such impediment marriage vow; is witnessed before God and subsisting at the time, as rendered the cele- the congregation; accompanied with prayers bration of the marriage-rite a mere nullity. to Almighty God for his blessing upon it; and And the rite itself contains an exception of attended with such circumstances of devotion these impediments. The man and woman to and solemnity as place the obligation of it, and be married are charged, "if they know any the guilt of violating it, nearly upon the same impediment why they may not be lawfully foundation with that of oaths. joined together, to confess it ;" and assured The parties by this vow engage their per"that so many as are coupled together, other-sonal fidelity expressly and specifically; they wise than God's word doth allow, are not join-engage likewise to consult and promote each ed together by God, neither is their matri- other's happiness; the wife, moreover, promismony lawful;" all which is intended by way of solemn notice to the parties, that the vow they are about to make will bind their consciences and authorise their cohabitation, only upon the supposition that no legal impediment exists.

CHAPTER VIII.

MARRIAGE.

WHETHER it hath grown out of some tradition of the Divine appointment of marriage

es obedience to her husband. Nature may have made and left the sexes of the human species nearly equal in their faculties, and perfectly so in their rights; but to guard against those com.

It was not, however, in Christian countries required that marriages should be celebrated in churches, till the thirteenth century of the Christian æra Marriages in England during the Usurpation, were solemnised before justices of the peace: but for what purpose this novelty was introduced, except to degrade the clergy, does not appear.

+ The ancient Assyrians sold their beauties by an antions to the more homely. By this contrivance, all of nual auction. The prices were applied by way of por both sorts were disposed of in marriage.

petitions which equality, or a contested supe- until twenty-five. In Holland, for sons till riority, is almost sure to produce, the Chris- twenty-five; for daughters till twenty. And tian Scriptures enjoin upon the wife that obe- this distinction between the sexes appears dience which she here promises, and in terms be well founded; for a woman is usually as so peremptory and absolute, that it seems to ex-properly qualified for the domestic and interior tend to every thing not criminal, or not en-duties of a wife or mother at eighteen, as a tirely inconsistent with the woman's happiness. man is for the business of the world, and the "Let the wife," says St. Paul," be subject more arduous care of providing for a family, to her husband in every thing."-" The orna- at twenty one. ment of a meek and quiet spirit," says the same apostle, speaking of the duty of wives, "is, in the sight of God, of great price." No words ever expressed the true merit of the female character so well as these.

The constitution also of the human species indicates the same distinction".

CHAPTER IX.

OF THE DUTY OF PARENTS.

The condition of human life will not permit us to say, that no one can conscientiously marry, who does not prefer the person at the altar to all other men or women in the world: but we can have no difficulty in pronouncing (whe- THAT virtue, which confines its beneficence ther we respect the end of the institution, or within the walls of a man's own house, we have the plain terms in which the contract is con- been accustomed to consider as little better ceived,) that whoever is conscious, at the time than a more refined selfishness; and yet it of his marriage, of such a dislike to the woman will be confessed, that the subject and matter he is about to marry, or of such a subsisting of this class of duties are inferior to none in attachment to some other woman, that he can utility and importance: and where, it may be not reasonably, nor does in fact, expect ever asked, is virtue, the most valuable, but where to entertain an affection for his future wife, is it does the most good? What duty is the most guilty, when he pronounces the marriage vow, obligatory, but that on which the most deof a direct and deliberate prevarication; and pends? And where have we happiness and that, too, aggravated by the presence of those misery so much in our power, or liable to be ideas of religion, and of the Supreme Being, so affected by our conduct, as in our own fa which the place, the ritual, and the solemnity milies? It will also be acknowledged that the of the occasion, cannot fail of bringing to his good order and happiness of the world are betthoughts. The same likewise of the woman. ter upholden whilst each man applies himself This charge must be imputed to all who, from to his own concerns and the care of his own mercenary motives, marry the objects of their aversion and disgust; and likewise to those who desert, from any motive whatever, the object of their affection, and, without being able to subdue that affection, marry another. The crime of falsehood is also incurred by the man who intends, at the time of his marriage, to commence, renew, or continue a personal commerce with any other woman. And the parity of reason, if a wife be capable of so much guilt, extends to her.

The marriage-vow is violated,
I. By adultery.

family, to which he is present, than if every man, from an excess of mistaken generosity, should leave his own business, to undertake his neighbour's, which he must always manage with less knowledge, conveniency, and success. If therefore, the low estimation of these virtues be well founded, it must be ow. ing, not to their inferior importance, but to some defect or impurity in the motive. And indeed it cannot be denied, that it is in the power of association so to unite our children's interest with our own, as that we shall often pursue both from the same motive, place both in the same object, and with as little sense of duty in one pursuit as in the other. Where this is the case, the judgment above stated is not far from the truth. And so often as we find a solicitous care of a man's own family, in a total absence or extreme penury of every A late regulation in the law of marriages, in other virtue, or interfering with other duties, this country, has made the consent of the fa- or directing its operation solely to the tempo ther, if he be living, of the mother, if she sur-ral happiness of the children, placing that hapvive the father, and remain unmarried, or of guardians, if both parents be dead, necessary to the marriage of a person under twentyone years of age. By the Roman law, the consent et avi el patris was required so long as they lived. In France, the consent of parents is necessary to the marriage of sons, until they attain to thirty years of age; of daughters,|

II. By any behaviour which, knowingly, renders the life of the other miserable; as desertion, neglect, prodigality, drunkenness, peevishness, penuriousness, jealousy, or any levity of conduct which administers occasion of jealousy.

piness in amusement and indulgence whilst they are young, or in advancement of fortune when they grow up, there is reason to believe that this is the case. In this way, the common opinion concerning these duties may be ac

quam in fœmina populi numerus nequaquam minuetur

Cùm vis prolem procreandi diutiùs hæreat in mare seriùs venerem colere inceperint viri.