man, woman, or her father, refused, and as it was in the power of any of thefe, as they affert, to hinder the marriage, so to fay it would not be hindered, is a falfity, then the feducer paid this mult to the virgin's father.---See Patrick's Com. Vol. 1. P. 282. and alfo Selden's Ux. Heb. Lib. 1. ch. 16. It appears by Exod. xxii. 17. that though matters had gone as far as described, ver. 16, yet the father could invalidate the contract; for here there is a reservation of the father's authority: "If her father utterly refuse to

is

give her unto him, he shall pay money

Alfo,

according to the dowry of virgins;" that pay, as I have before defcribed. This exception is fufficient to fhew the falfity of thofe pofitions defigned to prove that marriage always must be the recompence of seduction under the law of Mofes. when we reflect on this reservation of the father's authority, it must neceffarily suggest to us, contrary to what Madan advances, that taking poffeffion of a woman's perfon could not conftitute the contract, or marriageobligation. As to the others having a power of refusal, I can trust the Hebrew Doctors, who,

who, in this cafe, muft certainly be best acquainted with the truth of the matter: for which reafon I fhall pay very little attention to Madan's rash affertions, that their interpretation is an arbitrary expofition, robs "the text of its plain meaning, and leaves

us to the uncertainty of human imagina"tion."* According to the sense now laid before the reader, which is agreeable to the best Commentators, there will eafily be dif covered traces of this divine law in ours; nay, a ftriking likenefs, if not an exact fimilarity. Here let us take our stand, and we shake to the very foundation the Scheme of Thelyphthora.

BUT if our laws, when enforced, should be found inadequate to the good purposes of preventing female proftitution, and all its train of confequent evils---thofe horrid appendages which fhocks me to name, I fhould recommend a more strict conformity to the letter of the Mofaic law; and if fo humble an individual had any weight in recommending any hints for the improve*Vol. I. Page 389.

ment

1

ment of our Establishment, I would advise a law to the following purport ;--to compel the fingle man, be his rank what it will, to marry the woman he seduces, upon pain of forfeiture of all his property, and imprisonment for life; and the married man, in this cafe, to have inflicted upon him some severe infamous corporal punishment; to give security for the maintenance of the woman, which maintenance fhould be at least onethird of the income of his real eftate; or if no real eftate, then one third part of the personal; if no personal estate, then a greater portion of corporal punishment; and also to give fecurity to marry her if his matrimonial engagement should ceafe during her life. As to the punishment of the woman, I would let that remain as the law at present directs; but men being defigned by God and Nature, for the protectors of the weaker fex, certainly they deserve very severe punishment when they act the direct contrary parts of seducers and destroyers.

In regard to what I have recommended, upon a fuppofition of the infufficiency of

our laws, which I do not think will be the case upon a fair trial; whether it would be a direct conformity to that Heavenly fyftem which has not omitted provifions for the fecurity of the weaker fex, is foreign to my purpose to determine; however, I will dare to pronounce it more confonant to that fyftem than Polygamy, more for the good of fociety, and more productive of domestic peace; I also think it a better fecurity for female chastity, and better calculated to check the licentiousness of mankind: but whether or no it is preferable to our present laws, is a confideration that I leave for the determination of the Legislature.

CHAP.

CHA P. V.

I

On ADULTERY.

AGREE with Madan, in pronouncing

Adultery" an offence against the positive precepts of * God," and the most malignant kind of commerce between the fexes; and it would be wrong to deny that by the Law of Mofes it was punishable by death. Though I have the greatest abhorrence of it; yet fuch feverity does not, at prefent, appear to me justifiable: even when I confider all its evil temporal confequences, I do not find them of weight enough to make me alter my opinion. This is not any impeachment of the divine veracity, wisdom, or unchangeablenefs; by no means! Indeed it would be abfurd to fuppofe, that, a Being infinitely wife, would pay no attention, in the infancy of inftitutions and things, to the genius of a people, or local circumftances. I prefume