CH A P. VI. POLYGAMY. THE in the number of males and females born into the world intimates the intention of God, that one woman fhould be affigned to one man; for, if to one man be allowed an exclufive right to five or more women, four or more men must be deprived of the exclufive poffeffion of any: which could never be the order intended. It feems alfo a fignificant indication of the divine will, that he at firft created only one woman to one man. Had God intended polygamy for the fpecies, it is probable he would have begun with it; especially as, by giving to Adam more wives than one, the multiplication *This equality is not exact. The number of male infants exceeds that of females in the proportion of nineteen to eighteen, or thereabouts; which excefs provides for the greater confumption of males by war, feafaring and other dangerous or unhealthy occupations. of of the human race would have proceeded with a quicker progress. Polygamy not only violates the conftitution of nature, and the apparent defign of the Deity, but produces to the parties themfelves, and to the public, the following bad effects: contests and jealoufies amongst the wives of the fame hufband; diftracted affections, or the lofs of all affection in the husband himself; a voluptuoufnefs in the rich which diffolves the vigour of their intellectual as well as active faculties, producing that indolence and imbecility both of mind and body, which have long characterized the nations of the Eaft, the abalement of one half of the human fpecies, who, in countries where polygamy obtains, are degraded into mere inftruments of physical pleasure to the other half ; neglect of children; and the manifold, and fometimes unnatural mifchiefs, which arife from a fcarcity of women. To compenfate for thefe evils, polygamy does not offer a fingle advantage. In the article of population, which it has been thought to promote, the community gain nothing for the queftion is not, whether one mán * Nothing, I mean, compared with a ftate in which marriage is nearly univerfal. Where marriages are lefs general, and man will have more children by five or more wives than by one; but whether thefe five wives would not bear the fame, or a greater number of children, to five separate husbands. And as to the care of the children when produced, and the fending of them into the world in fituations in which they may be likely to form and bring up families of their own, upon which the increase and fucceffion of the human fpecies in a great degree depend; this is lefs provided for, and lefs practicable, where twenty or thirty children are to be fupported by the attention and fortunes of : and many women unfruitful from the want of husbands, polygamy might at first add a little to population; and but a little for, as a variety of wives would be fought chiefly from emptations of voluptuoufnefs, it would rather increase the demand for female beauty, than for the fex at large. And this little would foon be made lefs by many deductions. For, first, as none but the opulent can maintain a plurality of wives, where polygamy obtains, the rich indulge in it, while the reft take up with a vague and barren incontinency. And, fecondly, women would grow lefs jealous of their virtue, when they had nothing for which to reserve it, but a chamber in the haram; when their chastity was no longer to be rewarded with the rights and happiness of a wife, as enjoyed under the marriage of one woman to one man. Thefe con fiderations may be added to what is mentioned in the text, concerning the easy and early settlement of children in the world. VOL. I. Y one one father, than if they were divided into five or fix families, to each of which were affigned the industry and inheritance of two parents. : Whether fimultaneous polygamy was permitted by the law of Mofes, feems doubtful * but whether permitted or not, it was certainly practifed by the Jewish patriarchs, both before that law, and under it. The permiffion, if there was any, might be like that of divorce, "for "the hardness of their heart," in condefcenfion to their established indulgencies, rather than from the general rectitude or propriety of the thing itself. The ftate of manners in Judea had probably undergone a reformation in this refpect before the time of Chrift, for in the New Teftament we meet with no trace or mention of any fuch practice being tolerated. For which reafon, and because it was likewife forbidden amongst the Greeks and Romans, we cannot expect to find any exprefs law upon the fubject in the Chriftian code. The words of Chrift, Matt. xix. 9, may be conftrued by an eafy implication to prohibit polygamy; for, if *See Deut. xvii. 16. xxi. 15. "I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and fhall inarry another, committeth adultery." "whoever "whoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth "another, committeth adultery," he who marrieth another without putting away the first, is no lefs guilty of adultery; because the adultery does not confift in the repudiation of the first wife (for, however unjuft or cruel that may be, it is not adultery), but in entering into a second marriage during the legal exiftence and obligation of the first. The feveral paffages in St. Paul's writings, which speak of marriage, always fuppofe it to fignify the union of one man with one woman. Upon this fuppofition he argues, Rom. vii. 2, 3. "Know ye not, brethren, for "I speak to them that know the law, how that "the law hath dominion over a man, as long 66 as he liveth? For the woman which hath an "hufband, is bound by the law to her husband "fo long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, fhe is loofed from the law of her huf"band fo then, if while her husband liveth "fhe be married to another man, fhe fhall be "called an adulterefs." When the fame Apoftle permits marriage to his Corinthian converts (which," for the present distress," he judges to be inconvenient), he refrains the permiffion to the marriage of one hufband with one wife : "It is good for a man not to touch a woman; |