2. What a fituation of mind at the time is inconfiftent with it.

3. By what fubfequent behaviour it is violated. The husband promifes on his part, "to love, comfort, honour, and keep his wife;" the wife on hers, "to obey, ferve, love, honour, and keep her husband;" in every variety of health, fortune, and condition; and both ftipulate, "to forfake all others, and to keep only unto one another, fo long as they both fhall live." This promife is called the marriage vow; is witnessed before God and the congregation; accompanied with prayers to Almighty God for his bleffing upon it; and attended with fuch circumftances of devotion and folemnity, as place the obligation of it, and the guilt of violating it, nearly upon the fame foundation with that of oaths.

The parties by this vow engage their personal fidelity exprefsly and fpecifically; they engage likewife to confult and promote each other's happiness; the wife, moreover, promises obedience to her husband. Nature may have made and left the fexes of the human fpecies nearly equal in their faculties, and perfectly fo in their rights; but to guard against those competitions which equality, or a contefted fuperiority is almoft fure to produce, the Chriftian fcriptures enjoin upon the wife that obedience which the here promises, and in terms fo peremptory and abfolute, that it seems to extend to every thing not criminal, or not entirely inconfiftent with the woman's happinefs. "Let the wife," fays St. Paul, "be fubject to her own husband in every thing." "The ornament of a meek and quiet fpirit (fays the Apoftle Peter, fpeaking of the duty of wives) is in the fight of God of great price." No words ever expreffed the true merit of the female character fo well as these.

The condition of human life will not permit us to fay, that no one can confcientioufly marry, who does not prefer the perfon at the altar to all other men or women in the world: but we can have no difficulty in pronouncing (whether we refpect the end of the

inftitution, or the plain terms in which the contract is conceived) that whoever is conscious, at the time of his marriage, of fuch a diflike to the woman he is about to marry, or of fuch a fubfifting attachment to fome other woman, that he cannot reasonably, nor does in fact, expect ever to entertain an affection for his future wife, is guilty, when he pronounces the marriage vow, of a direct and deliberate prevarication; and that too, aggravated by the presence of thofe ideas of religion, and of the Supreme Being, which the place, the ritual, and the folemnity of the occafion, cannot fail of bringing to his thoughts. The fame likewife of the woman. This charge muft be imputed to all, who, from mercenary motives, marry the objects of their averfion and disgust; and likewise to those who defert, from any motive whatever, the object of their affection, and, without being able to fubdue that affection, marry another.

The crime of falfehood is also incurred by the man, who intends, at the time of his marriage, to commence, renew, or continue a perfonal commerce with any other woman. And the parity of reafon, if a wife be capable of fo much guilt, extends to her. The marriage vow is violated,

1. By adultery.

2. By any behaviour, which, knowingly, renders the life of the other miferable; as defertion, neglect, prodigality, drunkennefs, peevifhnefs, penurioufnefs, jealoufy, or any levity of conduct, which adminif ters occafion of jealoufy.

A late regulation in the law of marriages, in this country, has made the confent of the father, if he be living, of the mother, if the furvive the father, and remain unmarried, or of guardians, if both parents be dead, necessary to the marriage of a perfon under twenty-one years of age. By the Roman law, the confent et avi et patris was required fo long as they lived. In France, the confent of parents is neceffary

EE

to the marriage of fons, until they attain to thirty years of age; of daughters, until twenty-five. In Holland, for fons till twenty-five; for daughters, till twenty. And this diftinction between the fexes ap pears to be well founded, for a woman is ufually as properly qualified for the domeftic and interior du ties of a wife or mother at eighteen, as a man is for the bufinefs of the world and the more arduous care of providing for a family at twenty-one.

The conftitution alfo of the human fpecies indi cates the fame diftinction.*

Chapter IX.

OF THE DUTY OF PARENTS.

THAT virtue, which confines its beneficence within the walls of a man's own house, we have been accustomed to confider as little better than a more refined selfishness; and yet it will be confeffed, that the fubject and matter of this clafs of duties are inferior to none, in utility and importance: and where, it may be asked, is virtue the most valuable, but where it does the moft good? What duty is the most obligatory, but that, on which the most depends? And where have we happiness and mifery fo much in our power, or liable to be so affected by our conduct, as in our own families? It will alfo be acknowledged, that the good order and happinefs of the world are better upheld, whilft each man applies himself to his own concerns and the care of his own family, to which he is prefent, than if every man, from an excefs of miftaken generofity, fhould leave his own bufinefs, to undertake his neighbour's, which he must always manage with lefs knowledge, conveniency, and fuccefs. If, therefore, the low efti

Cum vis prolem procreandi diutiùs hæreat in mare quam in fœmina, populi numerus nequaquam minuetur, fi ferius venerem colere inceperint viri.

mation of thefe virtues be well founded, it must be owing not to their inferior importance, but to fome defect or impurity in the motive. And indeed it cannot be denied, but that it is in the power of affociation, fo to unite our children's intereft with our own, as that we fhould often purfue both from the fame motive, place both in the fame object, and with as little fenfe of duty in one purfuit as in the other. Where this is the cafe, the judgment above ftated is not far from the truth. And fo often as we find a folicitous care of a man's own family, in a total abfence or extreme penury of every other virtue, or interfering with other duties, or directing its operation folely to the temporal happiness of the chil dren, placing that happinefs and amusement in indulgence whilft they are young, or in advancement of fortune when they grow up, there is reason to believe that this is the cafe. In this way the common opinion concerning thefe duties may be accounted for and defended. If we look to the fubject of them, we perceive them to be indifpenfable: if we regard the motive, we find them often not very meritorious. Wherefore, although a man feldom rifes high in our esteem who has nothing to recommend him beside the care of his own family, yet we always condemn the neglect of this duty with the utmost feverity; both by reafon of the manifeft and immediate mif chief which we see arifing from this neglect, and because it argues a want not only of parental affection, but of thofe moral principles, which ought to come in aid of that affection, where it is wanting. And if, on the other hand, our praise and esteem of these duties be not proportioned to the good they produce, or to the indignation with which we refent the abfence of them, it is for this reason, that virtue is the most valuable, not where it produces the most good, but where it is the most wanted; which is not the cafe here; because its place is often fupplied by inftincts, or involuntary affociations. Neverthelefs, the offices, of a parent may be difcharged from a

confcioufnefs of their obligation, as well as other du ties; and a sense of this obligation is fometimes nec. effary to affift the ftimulus of parental affection; efpecially in flations of life, in which the wants of a family cannot be fupplied without the continual hard labour of the father, nor without his refraining from many indulgencies and recreations, which unmarried men of like condition are able to purchafe. Where the parental affection is fufficiently ftrong, or has fewer difficulties to furmount, a principle of duty may ftill be wanted to direct and regulate its exertions; for otherwife, it is apt to spend and wafte itself in a womanish fondness for the perfon of the child; an improvident attention to his prefent ease and gratification; a pernicious facility and compliance with his humours; an exceffive and fuperfluous care to provide the externals of happiness, with little or no attention to the internal fources of virtue and fatisfaction. Universally, wherever a parent's conduct is prompted or directed by a fenfe of duty, there is fo much virtue.

Having premised thus much concerning the place which parental duties hold in the fcale of human virtues, we proceed to state and explain the duties themselves.

When moralifts tell us, that parents are bound to do all they can for their children, they tell us more than is true; for, at that rate, every expense which might have been spared, and every profit omitted which might have been made would be criminal.

The duty of parents has its limits, like other duties; and admits, if not of perfect precision, at least of rules definite enough for application.

Thefe rules may be explained under the several heads of maintenance, education, and a reasonable provifion for the child's happiness in respect of outward condition. I. Maintenance.

The wants of children make it neceffary that fome perfon maintain them; and, as no one has a right to burthen others by his act, it follows,