known, till nations grew in fome degree to be orderly and refined. I felect Cicero as an author of authority: "Nam fuit quoddam tempus, cum in agris homines paffim, beftiarum more, vagabantur, et fibi victu ferino vitam propagabant: nec ratione animi quicquam fed pleraque viribus corporis administra→ bant. Nondum divinæ religionis non "humani officii ratio collebatur. Nemo legitimas viderat nuptias, non certos

quifquam infpexerat liberos * (a).”. Pliny, in fupport of that doctrine, informs us, that the Garamantes, an African nation, male and female lived promifcuously together, without any notion of matrimony. Among the Aufes, a people of Libya, as Herodotus fays, matrimony was not known, and men cohabited with women indifferently, like other

*«For there was a time, when men, like the "brutes, roamed abroad over the earth, and fed "like wild beafts upon other animals. Then rea"fon bore no fway, but all was ruled by fuperior "ftrength. The ties of religion, and the obligations "of morality, were then unfelt. Lawful marriage "was unknown, and no father was certain of his "offspring."

દ

(a) De Inventione, lib. 1.

animals.

}

animals. A boy educated by his mother was at a certain age admitted to an affembly of men, and the man he clung to was reputed his father. Juftin and other authors report, that before Cecrops, who reigned in Attica about 1600 years before Chrift, marriage was not known in Greece; and that the burden of children lay upon the mother.

Before entering directly into the matter, it is proper to remove, if poffible, the bias of these great names. The practice of the Garamantes and of the Aufes is mentioned by Pliny and Herodotus as fingular ;* and were it even well vouched, it would avail very little against the practice of all other nations. Little weight can be laid upon Pliny's evidence in particular, confidering what he reports in the fame chapter of the Blemmyans, that they had no head, and that the mouth and eyes were in the breast. Pliny at the fame time, as well as Herodotus, being very deficient in natural knowledge, were grofsly credulous; and cannot be relied on with refpect to any thing strange or uncommon. As to what is reported of ancient Greece, Cecrops poffibly prohibited polygamy, or introdu

ced fome other matrimonial regulation, which by writers might be mistaken for a law appointing matrimony. However that be, one part of the report is undoubtedly erroneous; for it will be made evident afterward, that in the hunter-state, or even in that of fhepherds, it is impracticable for any woman, by her own industry alone, to rear a numerous iffue. If this be at all poffible, it can only be in the torrid zone, where people live on fruits and roots, which are produced in plenty with very little labour. Upon that account, Diodorus Siculus is lefs blameable for listening to a report, that the inhabitants of Taprobana, fuppofed to be the ifland of Ceylon, never marry, but that women are used promifcuously. At the fame time, as there is no fuch cuftom at present in the East Indies, there is no good ground to believe, that it ever was cuftomary; and the East Indies were fo little. known to the ancient Greeks, that their authors cannot be much rely'd on, in the accounts they give of that distant region. The authority of Cicero, however refpectable in other matters, will not be much regarded upon the prefent question, when

the

the paffage above quoted is diffected.. How crude muft his notions be of the primi tive state of man, when he denies to favages any fenfe of religion or of moral duty! Ought we to rely more on him, when he denies that they have any notion of matrimony? Cæfar's account of the ancient Britons approaches the nearest to a loose commerce with women, tho' in the main it is good evidence against Cicero. It was common, he fays, for a number of brothers or other near relations, to use their wives promifcuously. The offspring however were not common; for each man maintained the children that were produced by his own wife. Herodotus reports the fame of the Maffagetæ. donge!

1

Laying thus afide the great names of Cicero, Herodotus, and Pliny, the field lies open to a fair and impartial invefti gation. And as the means provided by nature for continuing the race of other ánimals, may probably throw light upon the economy of nature with respect to man; I begin with that article, which has not engaged the attention of naturalifts fo much as it ought to have done. With refpect to animals whofe nourishment is

VOL. II.

B

grafs,

grafs, pairing would be of no use: the female feeds herfelf and her young at the fame inftant; and nothing is left for the male to do. On the other hand, all brute animals whofe young require the nurfing care of both parents, are directed by nature to pair; nor is that connection dif fölved till the young can provide for themfelves. Pairing is indifpenfable to wild birds that build on trees; because the male must provide food for his mate while fhe is hatching the eggs. And as they have commonly a numerous iffue, it requires the labour of both to pick up food for themselves and for their young. Upon that account it is fo ordered, that the young are fufficiently vigorous to provide for themselves, before a new brood is produced.

What I have now opened fuggests the following queftion, Whether, according to the economy above display'd, are we to prefume, or not, that man is directed by nature to matrimony? If analogy can be rely'd on, the affirmative must be held, as there is no other creature in the known world to which pairing is fo necessary. Man is an animal of long life, and is pro

portionally