quarrels, that he became ever after a profeffed woman-bater; and is the only theatrical writer, perhaps the only poet, who ever entertained an averfion against the whole fex. In that agreeable romance, called the Hiftory of the SEVAR AMBIANS, where a great many men and a few women are fuppofed to be fhipwrecked on a defert. coaft; the captain of the troop, in order to obviate thofe endless quarrels which arofe, regulates their marriages after the following manner: he takes a handfome female to himself alone; affigns one to every couple of inferior officers; and ta five of the lowest rank he gives one wife in common. Could the greatest legiflator, in fuch circumftances, have contrived matters with greater wisdom? THE ancient BRITONS had a very fingular kind of marriage, which is to be met with among no other people. Any number of them, as ten or a dozen, joined in a fociety together, which was perhaps requifite for mutual defence in thofe barbarous times. In order to link this fociety the clofer, they took an equal number of wives in common, and whatever children were born, were reputed to belong to all of them, and were accordingly provided for by the whole community. AMONG the inferior creatures, nature herself, being the fupreme legiflator, prefcribes all the laws which regulate their marriages, and varies thofe laws according to the different circumftances of the creature. Where the furnishes, with eafe, food and defence to the new-born animal, the prefent embrace terminates the marriage; and the care of the offspring is committed intirely to the female. Where the food is of more difficult purchase, the marriage continues for one season, till the common progeny can provide for itfelf; and then the union immediately diffolves, and leaves each of the parties free to enter into a new engagement at the enfuing season. But nature having endowed man with reafon, has not fo exactly regulated every article of his marriage contract, but has left him to adjust them, by his own prudence, according to his particular circumftances and fituation. Municipal laws are a fupply to the wisdom of each individual; and, at the fame time, by restraining the natural liberty of men, make the private intereft fubmit to the intereft of the public. All regulations, therefore, on this head are equally lawful, and equally conformable to the principles of nature; tho' they are not all equally convenient, or equally useful to fociety. The laws may allow of polygamy, as among the Eastern nations; or of voluntary divorces, as among the GREEKS and ROMANS; or they may confine one man to one woman, during the whole course of their lives, as among the modern EUROPEANS. It may not be disagreeable to confider the advantages and difadvantages which refult from each of these institutions. THE advocates for polygamy may recommend it as the only effectual remedy for the furies and diforders of love, and the only expedient for freeing men from that flavery to the females, which the natural violence of our paffions has impofed on us. By this means alone can we regain our right of fovereignty; and, fating our appetite, re-establish the authority of reafon in our minds, and, of confe quence, our own authority in our families. Man, like a weak fovereign, being unable to fupport himself against the wiles and intrigues of his fubjects, muft play one faction against another, and become abfolute by the mutual jealoufies of the females. To divide and to govern is an universal maxim; and, by neglecting it, the the EUROPEANS undergo a more grievous and a more ignominious slavery than the TURKS OF PERSIANS, who are fubjected indeed to a fovereign, who lies at a diftance from them, but in their domestic affairs rule with an uncontrolable fway. An honeft TURK, who fhould come from his feraglio, where every one trembles before him, would be furprised to fee SYLVIA in her drawing room, adored by all the beaus and pretty fellows about town, and he would certainly take her for fome mighty and defpotic queen, furrounded by her guard of obfequious flaves and eunuchs. On the other hand, it may be urged with better reason, that this fovereignty of the male is a real ufurpation, and deftroys that nearness of rank, not to fay equality, which nature has established betwixt the fexes. We are, by nature, their lovers, their friends, their patrons: Would we willingly change fuch endearing appellations, for the barbarous titles of mafter and tyrant? In what capacity fhall we gain by this inhuman proceeding? As lovers, or as hufbands The lover, is totally annihilated; and courtship, the most agreeable fcene in human life, can no longer have place, where women have not the free difpofal of themselves, but are bought and fold, like the meaneft animals. The bufband is as little a gainer, having found the admirable fecret of extinguishing every. part of love, except its jealoufy. There is no rofe without its thorn; but he muft be a foolish wretch indeed, who throws away the rofe and preferves only the thorn. I WOULD not willingly infift upon it as an advantage in our EUROPEAN Cuftoms, what was observed by MEHEMET EFFENDI the laft TURKISH ambaffador in FRANCE. We TURKS, fays he, are great fimpletons in comparison of the chriftians. We are at the expence and trouble of keeping a feraglio, each in his own houfe: But you ease yourselves of this burden, and have your feraglio in your friends boufes. The known virtue of our BRITISH ladies frees them fufficiently from this imputation: And the TURK himself, had he travelled among us, must have owned, that our free commerce with the fair fex, more than any other invention, embellishes, enlivens, and polishes fociety. BUT the ASIATIc manners are as deftructive to friendship as to love. Jealoufy excludes men from all intimacies and familiarities with each other. No man dares bring his friend to his houfe or table, left he bring a lover to his numerous wives. Hence all over the east, each family is as feparate from another, as if they were fo many diftinct kingdoms. No wonder then, that SOLOMON, living like an eastern prince, with his feven hundred wives, and three hundred concubines, without one friend, could write fo pathetically concerning the vanity of the world. Had he tried the fecret of one wife or mistress, a few friends, and a great many companions, he might have found life fomewhat more agreeable. Destroy love and friendship; what remains in the world worth accepting? THE bad education of children, especially children of condition, is another unavoidable confequence of these institutions. Thofe, who pafs all the early part of their life among flaves, are only qualified to be, themselves, flaves and tyrants; and in every future intercourfe, either with their inferiors or fuperiors, are apt to forget the natural equality of mankind. What attention, too, can it be fupposed a parent, whose feraglio affords him fifty fons, will give to the inftilling prin3 ciples ciples of morality or fcience into a progeny, with whom he himself is fcarcely acquainted, and whom he loves with fo divided an affection? Barbarifm, therefore, appears, from reafon as well as experience, to be the infeparable concomitant of polygamy. To render polygamy more odious, I need not recount the frightful effects of jealousy, and the constraint in which it holds the fair-fex all over the eaft. In thofe countries men are not allowed to have any commerce with the females, not even phyficians, when ficknefs may be fuppofed to have extinguifhed all wanton paflions in the bofoms of the fair, and, at the fame time, has rendered them unfit objects of defire. TOURNEFORT tells us, That when he was brought into the grand fignior's feraglio as a phyfician, he was not a little furprized, in looking along a gallery, to see a great number of naked arms, standing out from the fides of the room. He could not imagine what this could mean; till he was told, that thofe arms belonged to bodies, which he muft cure, without knowing any more about them, than what he could learn from the arms. He was not allowed to afk a queftion of the patient, or even of her attendants, left he might find it neceffary to enquire concerning circumftances, which the delicacy of the feraglio allows not to be revealed. Hence the phyficians in the eastern countries pretend to know all diseases from the pulfe; as our quacks in EUROPE undertake to cure a perfon merely from feeing his water. I fuppofe, had Monfieur TOURNEFORT been of this latter kind, he would not, in CONSTANTINOPLE, have been allowed by the jealous TURKS to be furnished with materials requifite for exercifing his art. In another country, where polygamy is alfo allowed, they render their wives cripples, and make their feet of no ufe to them, in order to confine them to their own houses. But it will, perhaps, appear ftrange, that in an EUROPEAN Country, where polygamy is not allowed, jealoufy can yet be carried to fuch a height, that 'tis indecent fo much as to fuppofe, that a woman of rank can have feet or legs. A SPANIARD is jealous of the very thoughts of those who approach his wife; and, if poffible, will prevent his being dishonored, even by the wantonnefs of imagination. Witnefs the following ftory, which we have from very good authority *. When the mother of the late king of SPAIN was on her road towards MADRID, fhe paffed thro' a little town in SPAIN, famous for its manufactory of gloves and stockings. The honeft magiftrates of the place thought they could not better exprefs their joy for the reception of their new queen, than by presenting her with a fample of thofe commodities, for which alone their town was remarkable. The major-domo, who conducted the queen, received the gloves very graciously: But when the ftockings were prefented, he flung them away with great indignation, and feverely reprimanded the magiftrates for this egregious piece of indecency. Know, fays he, That a queen of SPAIN has no legs. The poor young queen, who, at that time, understood the language but very imperfectly, and had been often frightened with ftories of SPANISH jealoufy, imagined that they were to cut off her legs. Upon which fhe fell a crying, and begged them to conduct her back to GERMANY; for that fhe never could endure that operation; And it was with fome difficulty they could appeafe her. PHI * Memoires de la cour d'ESPAGNE far Madame d'AUNOY. LIP IV. is faid never in his life to have laughed heartily, but at the recital of this ftory. IF a SPANISH lady muft not be fuppofed to have legs, what must be fuppofed of a TURKISH lady? She must not be fuppofed to have a being at all. Accordingly, 'tis esteemed a piece of rudeness and indecency at CONSTANTINOPLE, ever to make mention of a man's wives before him. In EUROPE, 'tis true, fine bred people make it alfo a rule never to talk of their wives: But the reafon is not founded on our jealoufy. I fuppofe it is because we fhould be apt, were it not for this rule, to become troublefome to company, by talking too much of them. THE author of the PERSIAN letters has given a different reafon for this polite maxim. Men, fays he, never care to mention their wives in company, left they should talk of them before people, who are better acquainted with them than themselves. HAVING rejected polygamy, and matched one man with one woman, let us now confider what duration we fhall affign to their union, and whether we shall admit of thofe voluntary divorces, which were in ufe among the GREEKS and ROMANS. They who would defend this practice, may employ the following reafons. How often does difguft and aversion arise after marriage, from the most trivial accidents, or from an incompatibility of humor; where time, inftead of curing the wounds proceeding from mutual injuries, festers them every day the more, by new quarrels and reproaches? Let us feparate hearts, which are not made for each other. Each of them may, perhaps, find another, for which it is better fitted. At least, nothing can be more cruel, than to preferve, by violence, an union, which, at first, was made by mutual love, and is now, in effect, diffolved by mutual hatred. But the liberty of divorces is not only a cure to hatred and domestic quarrels: It is alfo an admirable prefervative against them, and the only fecret for keeping alive that love, which firft united the married couple. The heart of man delights in liberty: The very image of conftraint is grievous to it: When you would confine it by violence, to what would otherwife have been its choice, the inclination immediately changes, and defire is turned into averfion. If the public intereft will not allow us to enjoy in polygamy that variety, which is fo agreeable in love; at leaft, deprive us not of that liberty, which is fo effentially requifite. In vain you tell me, that I had my choice of the perfon, with whom I would conjoin myfelf. I had my choice, 'tis true, of my prifon; but this is but a small comfort, fince it must still be a prifon. SUCH are the arguments, which may be urged in favor of divorces: But there feem to be these three unanswerable objections against them: First, What must become of the children, upon the feparation of the parents? Muft they be committed to the care of a stepmother; and instead of the fond attention and concern of a parent, feel all the indifference or hatred of à ftranger or an enemy? These inconveniences are fufficiently felt, where nature has made the divorce by the doom inevitable to all mortals: And fhall we feek to multiply these inconveniences, by multiplying divorces, and putting it in the power of parents, upon every caprice, to render their pofterity miferable? * Memoires de Marquis d'ARGENS. Secondly, Secondly, Ir it be true, on the one hand, that the heart of man naturally delights in liberty, and hates every thing to which it is confined; 'tis also true, on the other hand, that the heart of man naturally fubmits to neceffity, and foon lofes an inclination, when there appears an abfolute impoffibility of gratifying it. These principles of human nature, you will fay, are contradictory: But what is man but a heap of contradictions? Tho' 'tis remarkable, that where principles are, after this manner, contrary in their operation, they do not always deftroy each other; but the one or the other may predominate on any particular occafion, according as circumstances are more or lefs favorable to it. For inftance, love is a restless and impatient paffion, full of caprices and variations; arifing in a moment from a feature, from an air, from nothing, and fuddenly extinguishing after the fame manner. Such a paffion requires liberty above all things; and therefore ELOISA had reafon, when, in order to preferve this paffion, fhe refufed to marry her beloved ABELARD. How oft, when preft to marriage, have I faid, But friendship is a calm and fedate affection, conducted by reason, and cemented by habit; fpringing from long acquaintance and mutual obligations; without jealoufies or fears, and without thofe feverish fits of heat and cold, which cause fuch an agreeable torment in the amorous paffion. So fober an affection, therefore, as friendship, rather thrives under constraint, and never rifes to fuch a height, as when any strong intereft or neceffity binds two perfons together, and gives them fome common object of purfuit. Let us confider then, whether love or friendship should moft predominate in marriage; and we fhall foon determine whether liberty or constraint be moft favorable to it. The happieft marriages, to be fure, are found where love, by long acquaintance, is confolidated into friendship. Whoever, dreams of raptures and extafies beyond the honey-moon, is a fool. Even romances themselves, with all their liberty of fiction, are obliged to drop their lovers the very day of their marriage, and find it easier to fupport the paffion for a dozen years under coldness, difdain and difficulties, than a week under poffeffion and fecurity. We need not, therefore, be afraid of drawing the marriage-knot the closeft poffible. The friendship between the perfons, where it is folid and fincere, will rather gain by it: And where it is wavering and uncertain, this is the best expedient for fixing it. How many frivolous quarrels and difgufts are there, which people of common prudence endeavor to forget, when they lye under a ne-ceffity of paffing their lives together; but which would foon inflame into the moft. deadly hatred, were they purfued to the utmoft, under the profpect of an easy separation? In the third place, we must confider, that nothing is more dangerous than to unite two perfons fo clofely in all their interefts and concerns, as man and wife, without rendering the union intire and total. The leaft poffibility of a feparate interest must be the fource of endless quarrels and jealoufies. What Dr. PARNEL calls, The little pilf'ring temper of a wife, Q 2 will |