perfon. To infufe fufpicions, to kindle or continue disputes, to avert the favour and esteem of benefactors from their dependants, to render fome one whom we dislike contemptible or obnoxious in the public opinion, are all offices of flander; of which the guilt must be measured by the intensity and extent of the misery produced.

The difguifes under which flander is conveyed, whether in a whifper, with injunctions of fecrecy, by way of caution, or with affected reluctance, are all fo many aggravations of the offence, as they indicate more deliberation and defign.

Inconfiderate flander is a different offence, although the fame mischief actually follow, and although the mischief might have been foreseen. The not being conscious of that defign, which we have hitherto attributed to the flanderer, makes the difference.

The guilt here confifts in the want of that regard to the confequences of our conduct, which a juft affection for human happiness, and concern for our duty, would not have failed to have produced in us. And it is no answer to this crimination to fay, that we entertained no evil defign. A fervant may be a very bad fervant, and yet feldom or never defign to act in oppofition to his mafter's intereft or will; and his mafter may juftly punish fuch a fervant for a thoughtleffnefs and neglect nearly as prejudicial as deliberate difobedience. I accufe you not, he may say, of any exprefs intention to hurt me; but had not the fear of my displeasure, the care of my intereft, and indeed all the qualities which conftitute the merit of a good fervant, been wanting in you, they would not only have excluded every direct purpose of giving me uneafinefs, but have been fo far prefent to your thoughts, as to have checked that unguarded licentioufnefs, by which I have fuffered fo much, and infpired you in its place with an habitual folicitude about the effects and tendency of what you did or faid. This very much resembles the cafe of all

!

fins of inconfideration; and, amongst the foremost of thefe, that of inconfiderate flander.

Information communicated for the real purpose of warning, or cautioning, is not flander.

Indiscriminate praife is the oppofite of flander, but it is the oppofite extreme; and, however it may affect to be thought excefs of candour, is commonly the effufion of a frivolous understanding, or proceeds from a fettled contempt of all moral diftinctions.

Relative Duties.

PART III.

OF RELATIVE DUTIES WHICH RESULT
FROM THE CONSTITUTION OF
THE SEXES.

THE conftitution of the fexes is the foun dation of marriage.

Collateral to the subject of marriage, are fornication, feduction, adultery, inceft, polygamy, divorce. Confequential to marriage, is the relation and reciprocal duty of parent and child.

We will treat of these fubjects in the following order: firft, of the public ufe of marriage inftitutions; fecondly, of the fubjects collateral to marriage, in the order in which we have here propofed them; thirdly, of marriage itself; and laftly, of the relation and reciprocal duties of parents and children.

Chapter I.

OF THE PUBLIC USE OF MARRIAGE IN. STITUTIONS.

THE public ufe of marriage institutions con

fifts in their promoting the following beneficial effects:

1. The private comfort of individuals, especially of the female fex. It may be true, that all are not interested in this reafon : nevertheless, it is a reason to all for abstaining from any conduct which tends in its general confequence to obftruct marriage; for whatever promotes the happiness of the majority is binding upon the whole.

2. The production of the greatest number of healthy children, their better education, and the making of due provifion for their fettlement in life.

3. The peace of human fociety, in cutting off a principal fource of contention, by affigning one or more women to one man, and protecting his exclufive right by fanctions of morality and law.

4. The better government of fociety, by diftribut ing the community into feparate families, and appointing over each the authority of a mafter of a family, which has more actual influence than all civil authority put together.

5. The fame end, in the additional fecurity which the state receives for the good behaviour of its citizens, from the folicitude they feel for the welfare of their children, and from their being confined to permanent habitations.

6. The encouragement of industry.

Some ancient nations appear to have been more fenfible of the importance of marriage inftitutions than we are. The Spartans obliged their citizens to marry by penalties, and the Romans encouraged theirs by the jus trium liberorum. A man who had no child was entitled by the Roman law only to one half of any legacy that fhould be left him, that is, at the most, could only receive one half of the teftator's fortune.

Chapter II.

FORNICATION.

THE first and great mifchief, and by confe quence the guilt, of promifcuous concubinage, confifts in its tendency to diminish marriages, and thereby to defeat the feveral beneficial purposes enumerated in the preceding Chapter.

Promifcuous concubinage difcourages marriage by abating the chief temptation to it. The male part of the fpecies will not undertake the incumbrance, expenfe, and restraint of married life, if they can gratify their paffions at a cheaper price and they will undertake any thing, rather than not gratify

them.

The reader will learn to comprehend the magni tude of this mischief, by attending to the importance and variety of the uses to which marriage is fubfervient; and by recollecting withal, that the malignity and moral quality of each crime is not to be estimated by the particular effect of one offence, or of one perfon's offending, but by the general tendency and confequence of crimes of the fame nature. The libertine may not be confcious that these irregularities hinder his own marriage, from which he is deterred, he may allege, by different confiderations; much lefs does he perceive how his indulgences can hinder other men from marrying: but what will he say would be the confequence, if the fame licentioufnefs were univerfal? or what should hinder its becoming univerfal, if it be innocent or allowable in him?

2. Fornication fuppofes proftitution; and prostitution brings and leaves the victims of it to almost certain mifery. It is no fmall quantity of mifery in the aggregate, which, between want, difeafe, and infult, is fuffered by thofe outcafts of human fociety,