meant by condemning in the question, the common ufe of language requires us to fuppose that he meant the fame in his reply, "neither do I condemn thee," i. e. I pretend to no judicial character or authority over thee; it is no office or bufinefs of mine to pronounce or execute the fentence of the law.

When Chrift adds, " go and fin no more," he in effect tells her, that she had finned already; but as to the degree or quality of the fin, or Chrift's opinion concerning it, nothing is declared, or can be inferred, either way.

Adultery, which was punished with death during the ufurpation, is now regarded by the law of England only as a civil injury; for which the imperfect fatisfaction that money can afford, may be recovered by the husband.

CHAP.

СНА Р. V.

INCES T.

1

N

In order to preferve chastity in families, and be

tween 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 inceftuous 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 ufually live in the fame family, may be said to be forbidden by the law of

nature.

Reftrictions which extend to remoter degrees of kindred than what this reafon makes it neceffary 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 diffufe wealth, to connect families, or promote fome politi. cal advantage.

The Levitical law, which is received in this country, and from which the rule of the Roman law dif fers 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.

The Egyptians are faid to have allowed of the marriage of brothers and fifters. Amongst the Athenians a very fingular regulation prevailed; brothers 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 custom also 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, fhe is my fifter, fhe is the daugh"ter of my father, but not of my mother, and the "became my wife. Gen. xx. 12.

СНАР.

CHA P. VI.

POLYGAMY.

THE equality in the number of males and

females born into the world intimates the intention of God, that one woman should be affigned to ene man; for ifto 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 alfo 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 progress.

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 himself; 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 abafement 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; neglect 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, of thereabouts; which excefs provides for the greater confumption of males by war, feafaring, and other dangerous or unhealthy Occupations.

unnatural

unnatural mischiefs, which arife from a scarcity of women. To compenfate for these evils, polygamy does not offer a fingle advantage. In the article of population, which it has been thought to promotė, the community gain nothing:* for the queftion 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 hulbands. 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 increafe and fucceffion of the human fpecies in a great degree depend; this is lefs provided for, and lefs 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:t but whether permitted or not, it was certainly practifed by the Jewish patriarchs, both before that law, and

*Nothing, I mean, compared with a flate in which marriage is nearly univerfal. Where marriages are lefs general, and many Women unfruitful from the want of hufbands, polygamy might at firft 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 female 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 lets 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.

1

† See Deut. xvii. 16. xxi. 15.

unda