In a word, human life is more govern'd by fortune than by reafon; is to be regarded more as a dull pastime than as a ferious occupation; and is more influenc'd by particular humour than by general principles. Shall we engage ourselves in it with paffion and anxiety? It is not worthy of fo much concern. Shall we be indifferent about what happens? We lofe all the pleasure of the game by our phlegm and carelessness. While we are reasoning concerning life, life is gone; and death, tho' perhaps they receive him differently, yet treats alike the fool and the philofopher. To reduce life to exact rule and method, is commonly a painful, oft a fruitless occupation: And is it not alfo a proof, that we overvalue the prize for which we contend? Even to reason fo carefully concerning it, and to fix with accuracy its juft idea, would be over-valuing it, were it not that, to fome tempers, this occupation is one of the most amufing, in which life cou'd poffibly be employ'd.

ESSAY XXII.

Of POLYGAMY and DIVORCES.

A

S marriage is an engagement enter'd into by mutual confent, and has for its end the propagation of the species, 'tis evident, that it must be fufceptible of all the variety of conditions, which confent establishes, provided they be not contrary to this end.

A MAN, in conjoining himself to a woman, is bound to her according to the terms of his engage. ment: In begetting children, he is bound, by all the laws of nature and humanity, to provide for their fubfiftence and education. When he has perform'd these two parts of duty, no being can reproach him with injuftice or injury. And as the terms of his engagement, as well as the methods of fubfifting his offspring, may be very various, 'tis mere fuperftition to imagine, that marriage can be intirely uniform, and will admit only of one mode or form. Did not human laws reftrain the natural liberty of men, every particular marriage wou'd be as different, as contracts or bargains of any other kind or fpecies.

As

As circumftances vary, and the laws propofe different advantages, we find, that, in different times and places, they impofe different conditions on this important contract. In Tonquin 'tis ufual for the failors, when the ships come into the harbour, to marry for the season; and, notwithstanding this precarious engagement, they are affur'd, 'tis faid, of the ftrictest fidelity to their bed, as well as in the whole management of their affairs, from those temporary spouses.

I CANNOT, at prefent, recollect my authorities ; but I have fomewhere read, That the republic of Athens, having loft many of its citizens by war and peftilence, allow'd every man to marry two wives, in order the fooner to repair the waste which had been made by these calamities. The poet Euripides happen'd to be coupled to two noisy Vixons, who fo plagu'd him with their jealoufies and quarrels, that he became ever after a profest woman-hater; and is the only theatrical writer, perhaps the only poet, who ever entertain'd an averfion against the whole sex.

IN that agreeable romance, call'd the Hiftory of the Sevarambians, where a great many men and a few women are fuppos'd to be shipwreck'd on a defert coaft; the captain of the troop, in order to obviate thofe endless quarrels which arose, regulates their marriages after the following manner: He takes a handfome female to himself alone; affigns one to every couple of inferior officers; and to five of the lowest

rank

rank he gives one wife in common. Cou'd the greatest legiflator, in fuch circumftances, have contriv'd matters with greater wisdom?

THE ancient Britons had a very fingular kind of marriage, which is to be met with among no other people. Any number of them, as ten or a dozen, join'd in a fociety together, which was perhaps requifite for mutual defence in those barbarous times. In order to link this fociety the closer, they took an equal number of wives in common, and whatever children were born, were reputed to belong to all of them, and were accordingly provided for by the whole community.

AMONG the inferior creatures, nature herself, being the fupreme legiflator, prefcribes all the laws which regulate their marriages, and varies thofe laws according to the different circumftances of the creature. Where fhe furnishes, with eafe, food and defence to the new-born animal, the prefent embrace terminates the marriage; and the care of the offfpring is committed intirely to the female. Where the food is of more difficult purchase, the marriage continues for one feafon, till the common progeny can provide for itfelf; and then the union immedi ately diffolves, and leaves each of the parties free to enter into a new engagement at the enfuing feafon. But nature having endow'd man with reafon, has not fo exactly regulated every article of his marriage-contract, but has left him to adjust them,

by

by his own prudence, according to his particular circumstances and fituation. Municipal laws are a fupply to the wisdom of each individual; and, at the fame time, by reftraining the natural liberty of men, make the private interest submit to the interest of the public. All regulations, therefore, on this head are equally lawful, and equally conformable to the prin ciples of nature; tho' they are not all equally convenient, or equally useful to fociety. The laws may allow of polygamy, as among the Eastern nations; or of voluntary divorces, as among the Greeks and Romans; or they may confine one man to one woman, during the whole course of their lives, as among the modern Europeans. It may not be difagreeable to confider the advantages and disadvantages, which refult from each of these institutions.

THE advocates for polygamy may recommend it as the only effectual remedy for the furies and diforders of love, and the only expedient for freeing men from that slavery to the females, which the natural violence of our paffions has impos'd on us. By this means alone can we regain our right of fovereignty; and, fating our appetite, re-eftablish the authority of reason in our minds, and, of confequence, our own authority in our families. Man, like a weak fovereign, being unable to fupport himself against the wiles and intrigues of his fubjects, muft play one faction against another, and become abfolute by the mutual jealousies of the females. To divide and to govern is an univerfal maxim; and, by

neglect