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Whether a law might not be framed directing though marriage, in its own nature, and abstractthe fortune of the adulteress to descend as ined from the rules and declarations which the Jewcase of her natural death; reserving, however, ish and Christian Scriptures deliver concerning a certain proportion of the produce of it, by way it, be properly a civil contract, and nothing more. of annuity, for her subsistence (such annuity, in With respect to one main article in matrimonial no case, to exceed a fixed sum,) and also so far alliances, a total alteration has taken place in the suspending the estate in the hands of the heir as fashion of the world; the wife now brings money to preserve the inheritance to any children she to her husband, whereas anciently the husband might bear to a second marriage, in case there paid money to the family of the wife; as was the wis none to succeed in the place of their mother case among the Jewish patriarchs, the Greeks, by the first; whether, I say, such a law would not and the old inhabitants of Germany.* This alrender female virtue in higher life less vincible, asteration has proved of no small advantage to the well as the seducers of that virtue less urgent in female sex: for their importance in point of fortheir suit, we recommend to the deliberation of tune procures to them, in modern times, that asthose who are willing to attempt the reformation siduity and respect, which are always wanted to of this important, but most incorrigible, class of compensate for the inferiority of their strength; the community. A passion for splendor, for ex-but which their personal attractions would not pensive amusements and distinction, is commonly always secure.

I. What duties this vow creates.

found, in that description of women who would Our business is with marriage, as it is estabecome the objects of such a law, not less inordi-blished in this country. And in treating thereof, nate than their other appetites. A severity of the it will be necessary to state the terms of the markind we propose, applies immediately to that pas-riage vow, in order to discover:sion. And there is no room for any complaint of injustice, since the provisions above stated, with others which might be contrived, confine the punishment, so far as it is possible, to the person of the offender; suffering the estate to remain to the heir, or within the family, of the ancestor from whom it came, or to attend the appointments of his will.

2. What a situation of mind at the time is inconsistent with it.

3. By what subsequent behaviour it is violated. The husband promises on his part, "to love, comfort, honour, and keep, his wife:" the wife on hers, "to obey, serve, love, honour, and keep, her husband;" in every variety of health, fortune, and condition: and both stipulate "to forsake all others, and to keep only unto one another, so long as they both shall live." This promise is called the marriage vow; is witnessed before God and the congregation; accompanied with prayers to Almighty God for his blessing upon it; and attended with such circumstances of devotion and solemnity as place the obligation of it, and the guilt of violating it, nearly upon the same foun

Sentences of the ecclesiastical courts, which release the parties a vinculo matrimonii by reason of impuberty, frigidity, consanguinity within the prohibited degrees, prior marriage, or want of the requisite consent of parents and guardians, are not dissolutions of the marriage-contract, but judicial declarations that there never was any marriage; such impediment subsisting at the time, as rendered the celebration of the marriage-rite a mere nullity. And the rite itself contains an ex-dation with that of oaths. ception of these impediments. The man and woman to be married are charged, "if they know any impediment why they may not be lawfully joined together, to confess it;" and assured that so many as are coupled together, otherwise than God's word doth allow, are not joined together by God, neither is their matrimony lawful;" all which is intended by way of solemn notice to the parties, that the vow they are about to make will bind their consciences and authorise their cohabitation, only upon the supposition that no legal impediment exists.

CHAPTER VIII.
Marriage.

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WHETHER it hath grown out of some tradition of the Divine appointment of marriage in the persons of our first parents, or merely from a degn to impress the obligation of the marriage-contract with a solemnity suited to its importance, the marriage-rite, in almost all countries of the world, has been made a religious ceremony; al

The parties by this vow engage their personal fidelity expressly and specifically; they engage likewise to consult and promote each other's hap piness; the wife, moreover, promises obedience to her husband. Nature may have made and left the sexes of the human species nearly equal in their faculties, and perfectly so in their rights; but to guard against those competitions which equality, or a contested superiority, is almost sure to produce, the Christian Scriptures enjoin upon the wife that obedience which she here promises, and in terms so peremptory and absolute, that it seems to extend to every thing not criminal, or not entirely inconsistent with the women's happiness. "Let the wife," says St. Paul, "be subject to her husband in every thing."-"The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit," says the same apostle, speaking of the duty of wives, "is, in the sight of God, of great price." No words ever expressed the true merit of the female character so well as these.

The condition of human life will not permit us to say, that no one can conscientiously marry, who does not prefer the person at the altar to all other men or women in the world: but we can have no difficulty in pronouncing (whether we respect the end of the institution, or the plain

*It was not, however, in Christian countries reired that marriages should be celebrated in churches, the thirteenth century of the Christian æra. Mar. Ages in England during the Usurpation, were so- *The ancient Assyrians sold their beauties by an anunized before justices of the peace: but for what pur-nual auction. The prices were applied by way of portions to the more homely. By this contrivance, all of both sorts were disposed of in marriage.

pee this novelty was introduced, except to degrade the derry, does not appear.

The crime of falsehood is also incurred by the man who intends, at the time of his marriage, to commence, renew, or continue a personal commerce with any other woman. And the parity of reason, if a wife be capable of so much guilt, extends to her.

terms in which the contract is conceived,) that happiness and misery so much in our power, or whoever is conscious, at the time of his marriage, liable to be so affected by our conduct, as in our of such a dislike to the woman he is about to mar- own families? It will also be acknowledged that ry, or of such a subsisting attachment to some the good order and happiness of the world are betother woman, that he cannot reasonably, nor does ter upholden whilst each man applies himself to in fact, expect ever to entertain an affection for his own concerns and the care of his own his future wife, is guilty, when he pronounces the family, to which he is present, than if every man, marriage vow, of a direct and deliberate prevarica- from an excess of mistaken generosity, should tion; and that, too, aggravated by the presence of leave his own business, to undertake his neighthose ideas of religion, and of the Supreme Being,bour's, which he must always manage with less which the place, the ritual, and the solemnity of the knowledge, conveniency, and success. If thereoccasion, cannot fail of bringing to his thoughts. fore, the low estimation of these virtues be well The same likewise of the woman. This charge founded, it must be owing, not to their inferior must be imputed to all who, from mercenary mo- importance, but to some defect or impurity in the tives, marry the objects of their aversion and dis-motive. And indeed it cannot be denied, that it gust; and likewise to those who desert, from any is in the power of association so to unite our motive whatever, the object of their affection, and, children's interest with our own, as that we shall without being able to subdue that affection, marry often pursue both from the same motive, place another. both in the same object, and with as little sense of duty in one pursuit as in the other. Where this is the case, the judgment above stated is not far from the truth. And so often as we find a solicitous care of a man's own family, in a total absence or extreme penury of every other virtue, or interfering with other duties, or directing its operation solely to the temporal happiness of the children, placing that happiness in amusement and indulgence whilst they are young, or in advancement of fortune when they grow up, there is reason to believe that this is the case. In this way, the common opinion concerning these duties may be accounted for and defended. If we look to A late regulation in the law of marriages, in the subject of them, we perceive them to be inthis country, has made the consent of the father, dispensable. If we regard the motive, we find if he be living, of the mother, if she survive the them often not very meritorious. Wherefore, alfather, and remain unmarried, or of guardians, if though a man seldom rises high in our esteem who both parents be dead, necessary to the marriage of has nothing to recommend him beside the care of a person under twenty-one years of age. By the his own family, yet we always condemn the neRoman law, the consent et avi et patris was re-glect of this duty with the utmost severity; both quired so long as they lived. In France, the consent of parents is necessary to the marriage of sons, until they attain to thirty years of age; of daughters, until twenty-five. In Holland, for sons till twenty-five; for daughters till twenty. And this distinction between the sexes appears to be well founded; for a woman is usually as properly qualified for the domestic and interior duties of a wife or mother at eighteen, as a man is for the business of the world, and the more arduous care of providing for a family, at twenty-one. The constitution also of the human species indicates the same distinction.*

The marriage-vow is violated,
I. By adultery.

II. By any behaviour which, knowingly, renders the life of the other miserable; as desertion, neglect, prodigality, drunkenness, peevishness, penuriousness, jealousy, or any levity of conduct which adininisters occasion of jealousy.

CHAPTER IX.

Of the Duty of Parents.

THAT virtue, which confines its beneficence within the walls of a man's own house, we have been accustomed to consider as little better than a more refined selfishness; and yet it will be confessed, that the subject and matter of this class of duties are inferior to none in utility and importance: and where, it may be asked, is virtue, the most valuable, but where it does the most good? What duty is the most obligatory, but that on which the most depends? And where have we

* Cum vis prolem procreandi diutius hæreat in mare quam in fœmina populi numerus nequaquam minuetur, si serius venerem colere inceperint viri.

by reason of the manifest and immediate mischief which we see arising from this neglect, and because it argues a want not only of parental affection, but of those moral principles which ought to come in aid of that affection where it is wanting. And if, on the other hand, our praise and esteem of these duties be not proportioned to the good they produce, or to the indignation with which we resent the absence of them, it is for this reason, that virtue is the most valuable, not where it produces the most good, but where it is the most wanted: which is not the case here; because its place is often supplied by instincts, or involuntary associations. Nevertheless, the offices of a parent may be discharged from a consciousness of their obligation, as well as other duties; and a sense of this obligation is sometimes necessary to assist the stimulus of parental affection; especially in stations of life in which the wants of a family cannot be supplied without the continual hard labour of the father, and without his refraining from many indulgences and recreations which unmarried men of like condition are able to purchase. Where the parental affection is sufficiently strong, or has fewer difficulties to surmount, a principle of duty may still be wanted to direct and regulate its exertions: for otherwise it is apt to spend and waste itself in a womanish fondness for the person of the child; an improvident attention to his present ease and gratification; a pernicious facility and compliance with his humours; an excessive and superfluous care to provide the externals of happiness, with little

or no attention to the internal sources of virtue and satisfaction. Universally, wherever a parent's conduct is prompted or directed by a sense of duty, there is so much virtue.

Having premised thus much concerning the place which parental duties hold in the scale of human virtues, we proceed to state and explain the duties themselves.

When moralists tell us, that parents are bound to do all they can for their children, they tell us more than is true; for, at that rate, every expense which might have been spared, and every profit omitted which might have been made, would be criminal.

The duty of parents has its limits, like other duties; and admits, if not of perfect precision, at least of rules definite enough for application.

These rules may be explained under the several heads of maintenance, education, and a reasonable provision for the child's happiness in respect of outward condition.

I. Maintenance.

The wants of children make it necessary that seme person maintain them: and, as no one has a right to burthen others by his act, it follows, that the parents are bound to undertake this charge themselves. Beside this plain inference, the affection of parents to their children, if it be instinctive, and the provision which nature has prepared in the person of the mother for the sustentation of the infant, concerning the existence and design of which there can be no doubt, are manifest indications of the Divine will.

Hence we learn the guilt of those who run away from their families, or (what is much the same,) in consequence of idleness or drunkenness, throw them upon a parish; or who leave them destitute at their death, when, by diligence and frugality, they might have laid up a provision for their support: also of those who refuse or neglect the care of their bastard offspring, abandoning them to a condition in which they must either perish or become burthensome to others; for the duty of maintenance, like the reason upon which it is founded, extends to bastards, as well as to legitimate children.

| the community. So that to send an uneducated child into the world, is injurious to the rest of mankind; it is little better than to turn out a mad dog or a wild beast into the streets.

In the inferior classes of the community, this principle condemns the neglect of parents, who do not inure their children betimes to labour and restraint, by providing them with apprenticeships, services, or other regular employment, but who suffer them to waste their youth in idleness and vagrancy, or to betake themselves to some lazy, trilling, and precarious calling for the conscquence of having thus tasted the sweets of natural liberty, at an age when their passion and relish for it are at the highest, is, that they become incapable, for the remainder of their lives, of continued industry, or of persevering attention to any thing; spend their time in a miserable struggle between the importunity of want, and the irksomeness of regular application; and are prepared to embrace every expedient, which presents a hope of supplying their necessities without confining them to the plough, the loom, the shop, or the counting-house.

In the middle orders of society, those parents are most reprehensible, who neither qualify their children for a profession, nor enable them to live without one; and those in the highest, who, from indolence, indulgence, or avarice, omit to procure their children those liberal attainments which are necessary to make them useful in the stations to which they are destined. A man of fortune, who permits his son to consume the season of education in hunting, shooting, or in frequenting horseraces, assemblies, or other unedifying, if not vicious, diversions, defrauds the community of a benefactor, and bequeaths them a nuisance.

Some, though not the same, preparation for the sequel of their lives, is necessary for youth of every description; and therefore for bastards, as well as for children of better expectations. Consequently, they who leave the education of their bastards to chance, contenting themselves with making provision for their subsistence, desert half their duty.

III. A reasonable provision for the happiness of a child, in respect of outward condition, reThe Christian Scriptures, although they con- quires three things: a situation suited to his hacern themselves little with maxims of prudence bits and reasonable expectations; a competent or economy, and much less authorize worldly-provision for the exigencies of that situation; and mindedness or avarice, have yet declared in ex- a probable security for his virtue. plicit terms their judgment of the obligation of this duty: "If any provide not for his own, especially for those of his own household, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel," (1 Tim. v. 8. ;) he hath disgraced the Christian profession, and fallen short in a duty which even infidels acknowledge.

II. Education.

Education, in the most extensive sense of the word, may comprehend every preparation that is made in our youth for the sequel of our lives; and in this sense I use it. Some such preparation is necessary for children of all conditions, because without it they must be miserable, and probably will be vicious, when they grow up, either from want of the means of subsistence, or from want of rational and inoffensive occupation. In civilized hfe, every thing is effected by art and skill. Whence a person who is provided with neither (and neither can be acquired without exercise and instruction) will be useless; and he that is useless, will generally be at the same time mischievous to

The first two articles will vary with the condition of the parent. A situation somewhat approaching in rank and condition to the parent's own; or, where that is not practicable, similar to what other parents of like condition provide for their children; bounds the reasonable, as well as (generally speaking) the actual, expectations of the child, and therefore contains the extent of the parent's obligation.

Hence, a peasant satisfies his duty, who sends out his children, properly instructed for their occupation, to husbandry or to any branch of manufacture. Clergymen, lawyers, physicians, officers in the army or navy, gentlemen possessing moderate fortunes of inheritance, or exercising trade in a large or liberal way, are required by the same rule to provide their sons with learned professions,

Amongst the Athenians, if the parent did not put

his child into a way of getting a livelihood, the child was not bound to make provision for the parent when old and necessitous. 8

the standard which custom has established: for there is a certain appearance, attendance, establishment, and mode of living, which custom has annexed to the several ranks and orders of civil together with a certain society, and particular pleasures, belonging to each class: and a young person who is withheld from sharing in these for want of fortune, can scarcely be said to have a fair chance for happiness; the indignity and mortification of such a seclusion being what few tempers can bear, or bear with contentment. And as to the second consideration, of what a child may reasonably expect from his parent, he will expect what he sees all or most others in similar circumstances receive; and we can hardly call expectations unreasonable, which it is impossible to suppress.

commissions in the army or navy, places in public offices, or reputable branches of merchandise. Providing a child with a situation, includes a competent supply for the expenses of that situation, until the profits of it enables the child to sup-life (and which compose what is called decency,) port himself. Noblemen and gentlemen of high rank and fortune may be bound to transmit an inheritance to the representatives of their family, sufficient for their support without the aid of a trade or profession, to which there is little hope that a youth, who has been flattered with other expectations, will apply himself with diligence or success. In these parts of the world, public opinion has assorted the members of the community into four or five general classes, each class comprising a great variety of employments and professions, the choice of which must be committed to the private discretion of the parent.* All that can be expected from parents as a duty, and therefore the only rule which a moralist can deliver upon the subject, is, that they endeavour to preserve their children in the class in which they are born, that is to say, in which others of similar expectations are accustomed to be placed; and that they be careful to confine their hopes and habits of indulgence to objects which will continue to be at

tainable.

It is an ill-judged thrift, in some rich parents, to bring up their sons to mean employments, for the sake of saving the charge of a more expensive education: for these sons, when they become masters of their liberty and fortune, will hardly continue in occupations by which they think them selves degraded, and are seldom qualified for any thing better.

An attention, in the first place, to the exigencies of the children's respective conditions in the world; and a regard, in the second place, to their reasonable expectations, always postponing the expectations to the exigencies when both cannot be satisfied, ought to guide parents in the disposal of their fortunes after their death. And these exigencies and expectations must be measured by

*The health and virtue of a child's future life are considerations so superior to all others, that whatever is likely to have the smallest influence upon these, deserves the parent's first attention. In respect of health,

agriculture, and all active, rural, and out-of-door employments, are to be preferred to manufactures and sedentary occupations. In respect of virtue, à course of dealings in which the advantage is mutual, in which the profit on one side is connected with the benefit of the other (which is the case in trade, and all serviceable art or labour.) is more favourable to the inoral character, than callings in which one man's gain is another man's loss; in which what you acquire, is acquired without equivalent, and parted with in distress; as in gaming, and whatever partakes of gaming, and in the predatory protits of war. The following distinctions also deserve notice: A business, like a retail trade, in which the profits are small and frequent, and accruing from the employment, furnishes a moderate and cou stant engagement of the mind, and, so far, suits better with the general disposition of mankind, than profes sions which are supported by fixed salaries, as stations in the church, army, navy, revenue, public offices, &c. or wherein the profits are made in large sums, by a few great concerns, or fortunate adventures; as in many branches of wholesale and foreign merchandise, in which the occupation is neither so constant, nor the activity so kept alive by immediate encouragement. For security, inanual arts exceed merchandise, and such as supply the wants of mankind are better than those which minister to their pleasure. Situations which promise an early settlement in marriage, are on

many accounts to be chosen before those which require a longer waiting for a larger establishment.

By virtue of this rule, a parent is justified in making a difference between his children according as they stand in greater or less need of the assistance of his fortune, in consequence of the difference of their age or sex, or of the situations in which they are placed, or the various success which they have met with.

On account of the few lucrative employments which are left to the female sex, and by consequence the little opportunity they have of adding to their income, daughters ought to be the particular objects of a parent's care and foresight; and as an option of marriage, from which they can reasonably expect happiness, is not presented to every woman who deserves it, especially in times in which a licentious celibacy is in fashion with the men, a father should endeavour to enable his daughters to lead a single life with independence and decorum, even though he subtract more for that purpose from the portions of his sons than is agreeable to modern usage, or than they expect.

But when the exigencies of their several situations are provided for, and not before, a parent ought to admit the second consideration, the satisfaction of his children's expectations; and upon that principle to prefer the eldest son to the rest, and sons to daughters: which constitutes the right, and the whole right, of primogeniture, as well as the only reason for the preference of one sex to the other. The preference, indeed, of the firstborn, has one public good effect, that if the estate were divided equally amongst the sons, it would probably make them all idle; whereas, by the present rule of descent, it makes only one so; which is the less evil of the two. And it must further be observed on the part of the sons, that if the rest of the community make it a rule to prefer sons to daughters, an individual of that community ought to guide himself by the same rule, upon principles of mere equality. For, as the son suffers by the rule, in the fortune he may expect in marriage, it is but reasonable that he should receive the advantage of it in his own inheritance. Indeed, whatever the rule be, as to the preference of one sex to the other, marriage restores the equality. And as money is generally more convertible to profit, and more likely to promote industry, in the hands of men than of women, the custom of this country may properly be complied with, when it does not interfere with the weightier reason explained in the last paragraph.

The point of the children's actual expectations, together with the expediency of subjecting the illicit commerce of the sexes to every discourage

ment which it can receive, makes the difference | a fortune which a man acquires by well-applied between the claims of legitimate children and industry, or by a series of success in his business, of bastards. But neither reason will in any case and one found in his possession, or received from justify the leaving of bastards to the world with- another. out provision, education, or profession; or, what is more cruel, without the means of continuing in the situation to which the parent has introduced them; which last is, to leave them to inevitable misery.

After the first requisite, namely, a provision for the exigencies of his situation, is satisfied, a parent may diminish a child's portion, in order to punish any flagrant crime, or to punish contumacy and want of filial duty in instances not otherwise criminal: for a child who is conscious of bad behaviour, or of contempt of his parent's will and happiness, cannot reasonably expect the same in

stances of his munificence.

A child's vices may be of that sort, and his vicious habits so incorrigible, as to afford much the same reason for believing that he will waste or misempioy the fortune put into his power, as if he were mad or idiotish, in which case a parent may treat him as a madman or a. idiot; that is, may deem it sufficient to provide for his support, by an annuity equal to his wants and innocent enjoyments, and which he may be restrained from alienating. This seems to be the only case in which a disinherison, nearly absolute, is justisable.

A principal part of a parent's duty is still behind, viz: the using of proper precautions and expedients, in order to form and preserve his children's virtue.

To us, who believe that, in one stage or other of our existence, virtue will conduct to happiness, and vice terminate in misery; and who observe withal, that men's virtues and vices are, to a certain degree, produced or affected by the management of their youth, and the situations in which they are placed; to all who attend to these reasons, the obligation to consult a child's virtue will ap pear to differ in nothing from that by which the parent is bound to provide for his maintenance or fortune. The child's interest is concerned in the one means of happiness as well as in the other; and both means are equally, and almost exclusively, in the parent's power.

For this purpose, the first point to be endeavoured after is, to impress upon children the idea of accountableness, that is, to accustom them to look forward to the consequences of their actions in another world; which can only be brought about by the parents visibly acting with a view to these consequences themselves. Parents, to do them justice, are seldom sparing of lessons of virtue and Let not a father hope to excuse an inofficious religion: in admonitions which cost little, and disposition of his fortune, by alleging, that “ every which profit less; whilst their example exhibits a than may do what he will with his own." All the continual contradiction of what they teach. A truth which this expression contains is, that this father, for instance, will, with much solemnity discretion is under no control of law; and that and apparent earnestness, warn his son against his will, however capricious, will be valid. This idleness, excess in drinking, debauchery, and exby no means absolves his conscience from the ob- travagance, who himself loiters about all day irations of a parent, or imports that he may ne- without employment; comes home every night glect, without injustice, the several wants and ex-drunk; is made infamous in his neighbourhood by pectations of his family, in order to gratify a some profligate connexion; and wastes the forwhim or pique, or indulge a preference founded tune which should support, or remain a provision in no reasonable distinction of merit or situation. for his family, in riot, or luxury, or ostentation. Although in his intercourse with his family, and Or he will discourse gravely before his children in the lesser endearments of domestic life, a pa- of the obligation and importance of revealed rerent may not always resist his partiality to a fa-ligion, whilst they see the most frivolous and vourite child (which, however, should be both avoided and concealed, as oftentimes productive of lasting jealousies and discontents;) yet, when he sits down to make his will, these tendernesses must give place to more manly deliberations.

oftentimes feigned excuses detain him from its reasonable and solemn ordinances. Or he will set before them, perhaps, the supreme and tremendous authority of Almighty God; that such a Being ought not to be named, or even thought A father of a family is bound to adjust his upon, without sentiments of profound awe and economy with a view to these demands upon his veneration. This may be the lecture he delivers fortune; and until a sufficiency for these ends is to his family one hour; when the next, if an acquired, or in due time probably will be acquired occasion arise to excite his anger, his mirth or his (for, in human affairs, probability ought to con- surprise, they will hear him treat the name of the tent us,) frugality and exertions of industry are Deity with the most irreverent profanation, and duties. He is also justified in the declining ex-sport with the terms and denunciations of the pensive liberality: for, to take from those who Christian religion, as if they were the language of want, in order to give to those who want, adds some ridiculous and long exploded superstition. nothing to the stock of public happiness. Thus Now, even a child is not to be imposed upon by far, therefore, and no farther, the plea of "children," such mockery. He sees through the grimace of of large families," "charity begins at home," &c. this counterfeited concern for virtue. He disis an excuse for parsimony, and an answer to covers that his parent is acting a part; and rethose who solicit our bounty. Beyond this point, ceives his admonitions as he would hear the same as the use of riches becomes less, the desire of maxims from the mouth of a player. And when laying up should abate proportionably. The once this opinion has taken possession of the truth is, our children gain not so much as we child's mind, it has a fatal effect upon the parent's imagine, in the chance of this world's happiness, influence in all subjects; even those, in which he er even of its external prosperity, by setting out himself may be sincere and convinced. Whereas in it with large capitals. Of those who have died a silent, but observable, regard to the duties of rerich a great part began with little. And in religion, in the parent's own behaviour, will take a pect of enjoyinent, there is no comparison between sure and gradual hold of the child's disposition,

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