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feriority of their ftrength, but which their perfonal attractions would not always fecure.

Our business is with marriage, as it is established in this country. And in treating thereof, it will be neceffary to state the terms of the marriage vow, in order to discover,

1. What duties this vow creates.

2. What fituation of mind at the time is inconfiftent with it.

3. By what fubfequent behaviour it is violated. The husband promises on his part, "to love, "comfort, honour and keep his wife;" the wife on hers," to obey, serve, love, honour and keep "her husband;" in every variety of health, fortune, and condition; and both ftipulate" to for"fake all others, and to keep only unto one another, "fo long as they both fhall live." This promife is called the marriage vow; is witneffed before God and the congregation; accompanied with prayers to Almighty God for his bleffing upon it; and attended with fuch circumftances of devotion and folemnity, as place the obligation of it, and the guilt of violating it, nearly upon the fame foundation with that of oaths.

The parties by this vow engage their perfonal fidelity expressly and fpecifically: they engage likewife to confult and promote each other's happiness: the.wife, moreover, promifes obedience to her hufband. Nature may have made and left the fexes of the human fpecies nearly equal in their faculties, and perfectly fo in their rights; but to guard against thofe competitions which equality, or a contefted fuperiority is almoft fure to produce, the Christian scriptures enjoin upon the wife that obedience which the here promifes, and in terms fo peremptory and abfolute, that it seems to extend to every thing not criminal, or not entirely inconfiftent with the woman's happiness. "Let the "wife," fays St. Paul," be fubject to her own. "husband

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"husband in every thing." "The ornament of a meek and quiet fpirit (fays the fame Apoftle, speaking of the duty of wives) is in the fight of "God of great price." No words ever expreffed the true merit of the female character fo well as these.

The condition of human life will not permit us to fay, that no one can confcientioufly marry, who does not prefer the perfon at the altar, to all other men or women in the world: but we can have no difficulty in pronouncing, (whether we respect the end of the inftitution, or the plain terms in which the contract is conceived) that whoever is conscious, at the time of his marriage, of fuch a diflike to the woman he is about to marry, or of fuch a fubfifting attachment to fome other woman, that he cannot reasonably, nor does in fact, expect ever to entertain an affection for his future wife, is guilty, when he pronounces the marriage vow, of a direct and deliberate prevarication; and that too, aggravated by the prefence of thofe ideas of religion, and of the Supreme Being, which the place, the ritual, and the folemnity of the occafion, cannot fail of bringing to his thoughts. The fame likewife of the woman. This charge must be imputed to all, who, from mercenary motives, marry the objects of their averfion and difguft; and likewife to thofe who defert, from any motive whatever, the object of their affection, and, without being able to fubdue that affection, marry another.

The crime of falsehood is alfo incurred by the man, who intends, at the time of his marriage, to commence, renew, or continue a perfonal commerce with any other woman. And the parity of reafon, if a wife be capaple of fo much guilt, ex

tends to her.

The marriage vow is violated,
I. By adultery.

II. By

II. By any behaviour, which, knowingly, renders the life of the other miferable; as desertion, neglect, prodigality, drunkennefs, peevishnefs, penurioufnefs, jealoufy, or any levity of conduct, which adminifters occafion of jealousy.

A late regulation in the law of marriages in this country, has made the confent of the father, if he be living, of the mother, if the furvive the father, and remain unmarried, or of guardians, if both parents be dead, neceffary to the marriage of a perfon under twenty-one years of age. By the Roman law, the confent et avi et patris, was required fo long as they lived. In France, the confent of parents is neceffary to the marriage of fons, until they attain to thirty years of age; of daughters, until twenty-five. In Holland, for fons, till twentyfive; for daughters, till twenty. And this diftinction between the fexes appears to be well founded, for a woman is ufually as properly qualified for the domeftic and interior duties of a wife or mother at eighteen, as a man is for the bufinefs of the world and the more arduous care of providing for a family, at twenty-one.

The conftitution alfo of the human fpecies indicates the fame diftinction. *

Cum vis prolem procreandi diutius hæreat in mare quam in fæmina, populi numerus nequaquam minuetur, fi ferias venerem colere inceperint viri.

CHAP.

СНА Р. IX.

TH

OF THE DUTY OF PARENTS.

HAT virtue, which confines its beneficence within the walls of a man's own houfe, we have been accustomed to confider as little better than a more refined selfishness; and yet it will be confeffed, that the subject and matter of this clafs of duties are inferior to none, in utility and importance and where, it may be afked, is virtue the most valuable, but where it does the most good? What duty is the moft obligatory, but that, on which the most depends? And where have we happiness and mifery fo much in our power, or liable to be fo affected by our conduct, as in our own families? It will alfo be acknowledged, that the good order and happiness of the world are better upheld, whilft each man applies himfelf to his own concerns and the care of his own family, to which he is prefent, than if every man, from an excess of mistaken generofity, fhould leave his own business, to undertake his neighbour's, which he must always manage with lefs knowledge, conveniency and fuccefs. If, therefore, the low eftimation of thefe virtues be well founded, it must be owing, not to their inferior importance, but to fome defect or impurity in the motive. And indeed it cannot be denied, but that it is in the power of affociation, fo to unite our children's intereft with our own, as that we shall often pursue both from the fame motive, place both in the fame object, and with as little sense of duty in one purfuit as in the other. Where this is the cafe, the judgment above stated is not far from the truth. And fo often

often as we find a folicitous care of a man's own family, in a total abfence or extreme penury of every other virtue, or interfering with other duties, or directing its operation folely to the temporal happinefs of the children, placing that happiness in amusement and indulgence whilft they are young, or in advancement of fortune when they grow up, there is reafon to believe that this is the cafe. In this way the common opinion concerning thefe duties may be accounted for and defended. If we look to the fubject of them, we perceive them to be indifpenfable: if we regard the motive, we find them often not very meritorious. Wherefore, although a man feldom rifes high in our esteem, who has nothing to recommend him befide the care of his own family, yet we always condemn the neglect of this duty with the utmoft feverity; both by reason of the manifeft and immediate mifchief which we fee arifing from this neglect, and because it argues a want not only of parental affection, but of those moral principles, which ought to come in aid of that affection, where it is wanting. And if, on the

other hand, our praise and efteem of thefe duties be not proportioned to the good they produce, or to the indignation with which we refent the abfence of them, it is for this reafon, that virtue is the most valuable, not, where it produces the moft good, but where it is the most wanted; which is not the cafe here; because its place is often fupplied by instincts, or involuntary affociations. Nevertheless, the offices of a parent may be discharged from a consciousness of their obligation, as well as other duties; and a fenfe of this obligation is fometimes neceffary to affift the ftimulus of parental affection; efpecially in ftations of life, in which the wants of a family cannot be fupplied without the continual hard labour of the father, nor without his refraining from many indulgencies and recreations, which unmarried men of like condition are able to purchase.