PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

POlyg411lY· 209
wit.hin three degrees of kinm-ed; computing the generations
not from but through the common ancestor,
and accounting affinity the same as consanguinity.
The issue, however, of such marriages are not bastardized,
unless the parents be divorced during their
lifetime.
The EgYPtians are said to have allowed of the mar ..
riage of brothers and sisters. Amongst tho Athenians
a very singular regulation prevailed; brothers and
sisters of the half blood, if related by the fathers
side, might marry ; if by the moili~I's side, they
\vere prohibited from marry~g. _The same custom.
also probab~y obtained in Chaldea so early as the "ge
in which Abraham left it ; for he 3Ild Sarah his wife
stood in t4is relation to each other. "And yet,
indeed, ~he is my sister, she is the daughter of my
father, but not of my mother, and she became my
lrVife.~~ Gen. xx. I 2.
CHAPTER VI.
POLYGAMY.
THE equality* in the number of males and fentales
born into the world intimates the intention
. .of God, that one woman should be assigned to one
man; for, if to -one man be allowed an exclusive
right to five or more women, four or more nlen
must be deprived of the exclusive possession of any :
which could never be the order intended.
It seems also a significant indication of _~le divine
will, that he at first created only one woman to one
man. Had God intended polygamy for the species,
it is probable he would have begun with it; espec ..
• This equality is not exact. The number of male infants esceed. that
of females ill the proportion of nineteen to eighteen, or tllereabouta; which
,excess provides for the greater cODsumption of males by ",r, leafaring
a;lld other dangero\ls or uuhetlltby occ:u,patioDs.