remarkable wisdom with which the morality of CHRIST Confirms former prevailing maxims on morals, when founded on truth, and conducive to human happiness; and on the other hand, opposes and corrects them, however prevalent, and however supported by the authority, the customs, or the passions of mankind, when injurious to it, (as in the cases of Libertinism, and forgiveness of injuries,) furnishes a strong internal evidence of its Divine origin; proceeding as it did from a people so bigoted, and (in general philosophy) so ignorant as the Jews, and promulgated by the meanest and most uninformed even of that nation. The consideration too, that Christianity exacts no practical test of our obedience to GoD, but what tends to promote temporal happiness, or to diminish temporal misery, serves further to place the Goodness of the Deity in a very conspicuous and impressive point of view, and to give a dignity (before unperceived) to the character of a genuine Christian. I have dwelt somewhat on this view of Christianity, because I apprehend it is not sufficiently seen in this noble light, even by many of its friends; though the strict justness of it, in point of fact, is nevertheless demonstrable. But to return to my subject.-Without insisting at present on the authority of Revelation, which, by several of those I am now addressing, may be doubted or disbelieved; and regarding it merely in its relation to the natural law of equity, and in its aspect on the welfare of mankind in this life exclusively; let us fairly and honestly proceed in our examination of its pretensions; first noticing somewhat more particularly than we have done, the evils it may be found to produce, and then candidly weighing the pleas to be urged in excuse for it: assuming as a principle of decision, that the guilt of an act is to be measured by the opposite considerations of the degrees of mischief it is calculated to produce, and of the strength of temptation or inducement to commit it. Now the mischiefs of promiscuous concubinage chiefly consist in its injury to that part of the fair sex which is seduced into frailty and prostitution; and to that part of it which remains chaste and virtuous: - in its injurious effects on the health and morals of the offen der, and of those who are influenced by his example. I. It is injurious to the frail part of the sex: who as unfortunate, though often guilty, human beings, still retain their claim to human compassion. It is computed, that in London alone, the prostitutes amount to 50,000*; we may hence form an idea of the numbers throughout this kingdom, (not to extend the calculation to all Europe). It is well known (independent of the depravity of principle which this state generally produces in the sex, and the further crimes of which this effect often becomes a cause) that, what between want, insult, and disease, the sum of wretchedness endured by this numerous class of females is very heavy. Let those who have had the most intimate knowledge of these unhappy creatures, trace the probable course through life (through transient luxury and lasting penury, through loathsome disease and hardened depravity) of such as have come within their own notice. Let them mark their progress to a pre - - * Colquhoun's View of the Police of the Metropolis. mature exit, or, if they have chanced to reach old age, through that state to death: And if they extend this view to the innumerable multitudes of this description, with which the kingdom abounds, they will be constrained to acknowledge that of the various sources of human calamity, this of Prostitution is one of the most copious in bitterness and misery. --And yet to these evils does every act of incontinence tend to contribute; so that the least aggravated degree of this practice (supposing it never to extend to seduction or adultery) directly supports and encourages promiscuous cohabitation; the general effects of which on the health, morals, and comfort of its unhappy subjects, we have just noticed; and consequently tends to extend wretchedness and guilt, in direct violation of the law of genuine Benevolence, of which it is the very es sence to seek to diminish evil, even at the expence of self-gratification. We have here supposed the case never to extend to seduction and adultery: but whether these aggravations do not often follow, when the passion under consideration has been habitually indulged, let those in whom the habit is formed declare *. II. Again; It is injurious to the virtuous part of the Fair Sex. Such is the general impulse wisely given by Nature, that were the illicit intercourse of the sexes to cease, the regular connection by marriage would of course be resorted to by a great majority of those who now live in a state of barren celibacy, each of them depriving some virtuous female of the dearest union instituted by Providence to cheer the path of life. In order to estimate the evil of sensual indulgence in this one respect only, we have but to consider the effect actually produced on society in the middling and higher classes of it, where we shall find, in almost every family of daughters, the major part condemned, whether they prefer * An affecting, and, happily, a singular instance of the enormities into which it is possible to be drawn by the unlimited indulgence of the sensual passions, is fresh in the recollection of the public; where those passions were gratified not only in contempt of the remonstrances of conscience, and of the certain misery of their innocent object; but in defiance also of the unanimous execration of society at large, as well as of the vengeance of the law. I refer to the pitiable case of poor MARY, the Beauty of Buttermere. |