SECTION V.

We enter now on the concluding head of the Essay; viz. Our remarks on the results to which all that has preceded naturally conducts. The reflections suggested by the previous facts and observations, must necessarily be brief, by reason, that most of the inferences which arise out of the laws and customs before noticed, have been stated in the progress of the Essay. A few additional remarks are however necessary, as a compendium of the whole.

The first impression that must arise from all that has been stated, is surely so obvious, that it need only be alluded to; viz. the hateful nature of the crime, and the painful nature of the remedy. It has been made sufficiently to appear, that Adultery is a crime as extensively

injurious to man, as it is peculiarly offensive to God. So offensive to God, that it is not only made the subject of an express prohibition, but it is employed by him, throughout the sacred writings, as a figure to describe that sin against himself, which has excited more indignation and jealousy than any other, that of idolatry. "I was married to you, saith the Lord, yet ye have committed Adultery against me." That it is injurious to men is equally clear; it interferes with the great end of marriage, the production of genuine offspring, that decus gentium, which is alike the advantage of private families and the public state; and gives birth to deadly animosities, which find their only rest in the grave.

The injuries it inflicts on the husband and the children, are beautifully but painfully stated by an excellent American writer, to be "such as numbers cannot calculate, and tongue cannot describe. The husband is forced to behold his wife, once beloved beyond expression, not less affectionate than beloved, and hitherto untarnished even with suspicion, now corrupted by fraud, circumvention, and villany; seduced from truth, virtue, and hope, and voluntarily consigned to irretrievable ruin. His prospects of enjoyment, and even of com

fort in the present world, are overcast with the blackness of darkness. Life, to him, is changed into a lingering death, his house is turned into an empty dreary cavern. Himself is widowed, his children are orphans, robbed of all their peculiar blessings, the blessings of maternal care and tenderness, the rich blessings of maternal instruction and government, the delightful and persuasive blessings of maternal example; and, this not by the righteous providence of God, but by the murderous villany of man. Clouded with woe, and hung round with despair, his soul becomes a charnel house, where life, and peace, and comfort, have expired; a tomb, dark and hollow, covering the remains of departed enjoyment, and opening no more to the entrance to the living."

With respect to Divorce, it is clear, that it is not a remedy to be hastily resorted to, and indeed its exclusive parent ought to be the commission of this crime, or some other equally destructive of the purposes of marriage.

Man's judgment may be seen peculiarly in the Jewish and Roman States; the latter of whom, when in the possession of their most uncontrolled liberty, were most the

prey of civil feuds. The judgment of God is to be found in that sentence of the Prophet's, "He hateth putting away.'

There has indeed been a gradation in the penal visitation of the crime under consideration, some nations requiring its expiation (in the human sense of that term) by death, others deeming whipping a sufficient punishment, others regarding fine an adequate compensation, while only in savage countries, and those not universally, it is regarded otherwise than in the light of a crime. It may, in general, be remarked, however, that where the punishment has been vested in the laws of the country, it is usually characterized by less severity, than when lodged in the hands of the party offended; and in the latter case, its severity varied according to the ideas entertained of women, and to the power assumed over the female sex.

By the Jewish law, it is clear, that Adultery was followed by capital punishment. That Divorce was permitted to the men, but limited to causes which defeated the end of marriage. That the increasing corruption of men extended this afterwards to signify slighter

* Mal. ii. 16.

causes of dislike, and that it was afterwards grasped by the women; that the other nations of the world, not possessing the same restraints which curbed originally the Jewish nation, surrendered themselves up to a greater liberty of Divorce; but that all regarded Adultery as a frightful offence against the peace of society and the happiness of men;" Turpis Adultera”* being the voice of all their sentiments.

That, amidst the confusion of opinions and

That is a fine passage in Cicero, wherein he says, "Maximè admonendus, quantus sit furor amoris. Omnibus enim ex animi perturbationibus est profectò nulla vehementior; ut si jam ipsa illa accusare nolis, stupra dico, et corruptelas et Adulteria, quorum accusabilis est turpitudo." &c. Tusc. Quæst. lib. 4. 35.

Lessius cites a supposition of some ingenious author, that the very animal creation have indicated an abhorrence of this crime; and relates an instance of a stork convicted of Adultery," per olfactum masculi sui," having convened a flock of other storks, who first deplumed, and then destroyed the adulterous female. We may smile at the fable, but we must concur in the sentiment of the relater, that, "if the report seems improbable, yet the moral is very applicable."

Pliny, however, states, that the elephant knows no such thing as copulation with any but his own proper mate; that the dove does not, as he expresses it, ever violate the faith of wedlock; and that lions do, in a very severe manner, punish the adulteries of the lioness.

"Elephantis mirus pudor est. Nunque nisi habito coeunt. Nec Adulteria novere." Nat. Hist. lib. viii. cap. 5. "Colum