put

him under ftrong obligations of neceffity, convenience, and inclination to drive him into fociety, as well as fitted him with understanding and language to continue and enjoy it. The first fociety was between man and wife, which gave beginning to that between parents and children; to which, in time, that between mafter and fervant came to be added and though all thefe might, and commonly did meet together, and make up but one family, wherein the mafter or miftrefs of it had fome fort of rule proper to a family; each of thefe, or all together, came fhort of political fociety, as we fhall fee, if we confider the different ends, ties, and bounds of each of these.

§. 78. Conjugal fociety is made by a voluntary compact between man and woman; and tho' it confift chiefly in fuch a communion and right in one another's bodies as is neceffary to its chief end, procreation; yet it draws with it mutual fupport and affiftance, and a communion of interefts too, as neceffary not only to unite their care and affection, but also neceffary to their common off-fpring, who have a right to be nourished, and maintained by them, till they are able to provide for themselves.

§. 79. For the end of conjunction, between male and female, being not barely procreation, but the continuation of the fpecies; this conjunction betwixt male and female ought to

laft,

laft, even after procreation, fo long as is neceffary to the nourishment and fupport of the young ones, who are to be fuftained by thofe that got them, till they are able to fhift and provide for themselves. This rule, which the infinite wife maker hath fet to the works of his hands, we find the inferior creatures fteadily obey. In thofe viviparous animals which feed on grafs, the conjunction between male and female lafts no longer than the very act of copulation; because the teat of the dam being fufficient to nourish the young, till it be able to feed on grafs, the male only begets, but concerns not himself for the female or young, to whose fuftenance he can contribute nothing. But in beafts of prey the conjunction lafts longer: because the dam not being able well to fubfift herself, and nourish her numerous off-fpring by her own prey alone, a more laborious, as well as more dangerous way of living, than by feeding on grafs, the affiftance of the male is neceffary to the maintenance of their common family, which cannot fubfift till they are able to prey for themselves, but by the joint care of male and female. The fame is to be obferved in all birds, (except fome domeftic ones, where plenty of food excufes the cock from feeding, and taking care of the young brood) whofe young needing food in the neft, the cock and hen continue mates, till the young are able

to use their wing, and provide for themfelves.

..

80. And herein I think lies the chief, if not the only why

emale in mankind are tied to the male and fe

a longer conjunction than other creatures, viz. because the female is capable of conceiving, and de facto is commonly with child again, and brings forth too a new birth, long before the former is sout of a dependency for fupport on his parents help, and able to shift for himself, and has all the affiftance is due to him from his parents whereby the father, who is bound to take care for those he hath begot, is under an obligation to continue in conjugal fociety o with the fame woman longer than other I creatures, whofe young being able to fubfift of themselves, before the time of procreation returns again, the conjugal bond diffolves of : itself, and they are at liberty, till Hymen at his ufual anniversary feafon fummons them again to chufe new mates. Wherein one cannot but admire the wifdom of the great i Creator, who having given to man forefight, and an ability to lay up for the future, as well as to fupply the prefent neceffity, hath made it neceffary, that fociety of man and wife fhould be more lafting, than of male and female amongst other creatures; that fo their industry might be encouraged, and their interest better united, to make provision and lay up goods for their common iffue, which

uncertain

uncertain mixture, or eafy and frequent for lutions of conjugal fociety would mightily difturb.

霉

§. 81. But tho' thefe are ties upon mankind, which make the conjugal bonds more firm and lafting in man, than the other fpecies of animals; yet it would give one reafon to enquire, why this compact, where procreation and education are fecured, and inheritance taken care for, may not be made determinable, either by confent, or at a certain time, or upon certain conditions, as well as any other voluntary compacts, there being no neceffity in the nature of the thing, nor to the ends of it, that it should always be for life; I mean, to fuch as are under no reftraint of any pofitive law, which ordains all fuch contracts to be perpetual.

§. 82. But the hufband and wife, though they have but one common concern, yet having different understandings, will unavoidably fometimes have different wills too; it therefore being neceffary that the laft determination, i. e. the rule, fhould be placed fomewhere; it naturally falls to the man's fhare, as the abler and the ftronger. But this reaching but to the things of their common intereft and property, leaves the wife in the full and free poffeffion of what by contract is her peculiar right, and gives the hufband no more power over her life than fhe has over his; the power of the husband being

fo far from that of an abfolute monarch, that the wife has in many cafes a liberty to feparate from him, where natural right, or their contract allows it; whether that contract be made by themselves in the state of nature, or by the customs or laws of the country they live in; and the children upon fuch feparation fall to the father or mother's lot, as fuch contract does determine.

§. 83. For all the ends of marriage being to be obtained under politic government, as well as in the ftate of nature, the civil magiftrate doth not abridge the right or power of either naturally neceffary to thofe ends, viz. procreation and mutual fupport and affistance whilst they are together; but only decides any controverfy that may arise between man and wife about them. If it were otherwife, and that absolute fovereignty and power of life and death naturally belonged to the hufband, and were neceffary to the fociety between man and wife, there could be no matrimony in any of those countries where the husband is allowed no fuch abfolute authority. But the ends of matrimony requiring no fuch power in the husband, the condition of conjugal fociety put it not in him, it being not at all neceffary to that ftate. Conjugal fociety could fubfift and attain its ends without it; nay, community of goods, and the power over them, mutual affiftance and maintenance, and other things belonging to conjugal fociety,

might