portionally flow in growing to maturity: he is a helpless being before the age of fifteen or fixteen; and there may be in a family ten or twelve children of different births, before the eldest can shift for itself. Now in the original state of hunting and fishing, which are laborious occupations and not always fuccessful, a woman, fuckling her infant, is not able to provide food even for herself, far lefs for ten or twelve voracious children. Matrimony therefore, or pairing, is fo neceffary to the human race, that it must be natural and instinctive. When fuch ample means are provided for continuing every other animal race, is it fuppofable that the chiaf race is neglected? Providential care defcends even to vegetable life: every plant bears a profufion of feed; and in order to cover the earth with vegetables, fome feeds have wings, fome are scattered by means of a spring, and fome are fo light as to be carried about by the wind. Brute animals which do not pair, have grafs and other food in plenty, enabling the female to feed her young without needing any affistance from the male. But where the young require the nursing care

of both parents, pairing is a law of nature. When other races are fo amply provided for, can it be feriously thought, that Providence is lefs attentive to the human race? If men and women were not impelled by nature to matrimony, they would be lefs fitted for continuing the fpecies, than even the humbleft plant. Have we not then reafon fairly to conclude, that matrimony in the human race is an appointment of nature? Can that conclufion be refifted by any one who believes in Providence, and in final causes *.

To confirm this doctrine, let the confequences of a loofe commerce between the fexes be examined. The carnal appetite, when confined to one object, feldom tranfgreffes the bounds of temperance. But were it encouraged to roam, like a bee fucking honey from every flower, every new object would inflame the imagina

*It appears a wife appointment of Providence, that women give over child-bearing at fifty, while they are ftill in vigour of mind and body to take care of their offspring. Did the power of procrea

tion continue in women to old age as in men, children would often be left in the wide world, without a mortal to look after them.

tion ; and fatiety with respect to one, would give new vigour with respect to others a generic habit would be formed of intemperance in fruition (a); and animal love would become the ruling paffion. Men, like the hart in rutting-time, would all the year round fly with impetuofity from object to object, giving no quarter even to women fuckling their infants and women, abandoning themfelves to the fame appetite, would become altogether regardless of their offspring. In that state, the continuance of the human race would be a miracle. In the favage ftate, as mentioned above, it is beyond power of any woman to provide food for a family of children; and now it appears, that intemperance in animal love would render a woman careless of her family, however eafy it might be to provide for it *

the

(a) Elements of Criticifm, chap. 14.

* I have often been tempted to blame Providence. for bringing to perfection in early youth the carnal appetite, long before people have acquired any prudence or felf-command. It rages the moft when young men fhould be employ'd in acquiring knowledge, and in fitting themfelves for living comfort

ably

I

I fay more. The promifcuous use of women would unqualify them in a great measure to procreate. The carnal appetite in man resembles his appetite for food: each of them demands gratification, after fhort intervals. Where the carnal appetite is felt but a fhort fpace annually, as among animals who feed on grafs, the promiscuous use of females is according to the order of nature: but fuch a law in man, where the carnal appetite is always awake, would be an effectual bar to procreation; it being an undoubted truth, that women who indulge that appetite to excefs, feldom have children; and if all women were common, all women would in effect be common prostitutes.

ably in the world. I have fet this thought in various lights; but I now perceive that the cenfure is without foundation. The early ripenefs of this appetite, proves it to be the intention of Providence that people fhould early fettle in matrimony. In that ftate: the appetite is abundantly moderate, and gives no obstruction to education. It never becomes unruly, till a man, forgetting the matrimonial tie, wanders from object to object. Pride and luxury are what dictate late marriages: induftry never fails to afford the means of living comfortably, provided men confine themselves to the demands of nature.

If undifguifed nature fhow itself any where, it is in children. So truly is matrimony an appointment of nature, as to be understood even by children. They often hear, it is true, people talking of matrimony; but they alfo hear of logical, metaphyfical, and commercial matters, without understanding a fyllable. Whence then their notion of marriage but from nature? Marriage is a compound idea, which no instruction could bring within the comprehenfion of a child, did not nature co-operate.

That the arguments urged above against a promifcuous use of women, do not neceffarily conclude against polygamy, or the union of one man with a plurality of women, will not efcape an attentive reader. St Auguftin and other fathers admit, that polygamy is not prohibited by the law of nature; and the learned Grotius profeffes the fame opinion (a). But great names terrify me not; and I venture to maintain, that pairing in the fricteft fenfe is a law of nature among men as among wild birds; and that polygamy is a grofs

(a) De jure belli ac pacis, lib. 2. cap. 5. § 9.

infringement