ntages, we find, that in different times and places, they impose
different conditions on this important contract. In Tonquin, it is usual
for the sailors, when the ship comes into the harbor, to marry for
the season; and, notwithstanding this precarious engagement, they are
assured, it is said, of the strictest fidelity to their bed, as well as
in the whole management of their affairs, from those temporary spouses.
I cannot, at present, recollect my authorities; but I have somewhere
read, that the Republic of Athens, having lost many of its citizens by
war and pestilence, allowed every man to marry two wives, in order the
sooner to repair the waste which had been made by these calamities.
The poet Euripides happened to be coupled to two noisy vixens, who so
plagued him with their jealousies and quarrels, that he became ever
after a professed _woman hater_; and is the only theatrical writer,
perhaps the only poet, that ever entertained an aversion to the sex....
The advocates for polygamy may recommend it as the only effectual remedy
for the disorders of love, and the only expedient for freeing men from
that slavery to the females which the natural violence of our passions
has imposed upon us. By this means alone can we regain our right of
sovereignty and, sating our appetite, re-establish the authority of
reason in our minds, and, of consequence, our own authority in our
families. Man, like a weak sovereign, being unable to support himself
against the wiles and intrigues of his subjects, must play one faction
against another, and become absolute by the mutual jealousy of
the females. To divide and to govern is an universal maxim; and
by neglecting it, the Europeans undergo a more grievous and a more
ignominious slavery than the Turks or Persians, who are subjected indeed
to a sovereign that lies at a distance from them, but in their domestic
affairs rules with an uncontrollable sway. On the other hand, it may be
urged with better reason, that this sovereignty of the male is a real
usurpation, and destroys that nearness of rank, not to say equality,
which nature has established between the sexes. We are, by nature, their
lovers, their friends, their patrons. Would we willingly exchange such
endearing appellations for the barbarous title of master and tyrant? In
what capacity shall we gain by this inhuman proceeding? As lovers, or
as husbands? The _lover_ is totally annihilated; and courtship, the most
agreeable scene in li