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

Of DifJOrte.
21S
The ancient Med~s compelled their citizens, in
one cantOD, to take £even wives; in another, each
woman to receive five husban4s: according as war
had made, in one quarter of their country, an ex·
traordinary hayock among the men, or the women
had been carried away by an enemy from another.
This regulation, so far as it was adapted -to the proportion
which subsisted between the numbers of
males and fP.lIlales, was founded in the reason upon
which the most improved nations of Europt· proceed
at present. -
elbar found amongst the inhabitants of this island
a species of polygamy, if it may be so called, which
was perfe£tly singular. U%ores, says he, habent deni
duodeniquei1der se communes, et 1IlI.ntime frlllres cum fra­
!rilnu, parentesque cum liberis: sed si qui sunt ex hil
nati, corum halJentur liberi, quo priltnllll 'l1irgo qu~qTJ8
deducta est.
•
CH_4PTER VB.
OF DI-VORCE.
By Di-uorte, I mean, the dissolution of the
marriage contract, by the act, and at the wiii, of the"
husband.
This power was allowed to the husband, among .
. the Jews, the Greeks, and latter Romans; and is at
this day exercised by the Turks and Persians.
The congruity of such a right with the law of natltre,
is the question before us.
And in the first place, it is manifestly inconsistent
with the duty, which the parents owe to their chi}.
dren; which duty can never be so well fulfilled as
by their cohabitation and united care. It is also
incompatible with the right which the mother possesses,
as well as the father, to the gr~titudeof her
children, and the comfort of their society ; of bot11