fe, can no longer have place where women have
not the free disposal of themselves, but are bought and sold like the
meanest animal. The _husband_ is as little a gainer, having found
the admirable secret of extinguishing every part of love, except its
jealousy. No rose without its thorn; but he must be a foolish wretch
indeed, that throws away the rose and preserves only the thorn. But the
Asiatic manners are as destructive to friendship as to love. Jealousy
excludes men from all intimacies and familiarities with each other. No
one dares bring his friend to his house or table, lest he bring a lover
to his numerous wives. Hence, all over the East, each family is as much
separate from another as if they were so many distinct kingdoms. No
wonder then that Solomon, living like an Eastern prince, with his seven
hundred wives, and three hundred concubines, without one friend, could
write so pathetically concerning the vanity of the world. Had he tried
the secret of one wife or mistress, a few friends, and a great many
companions, he might have found lite somewhat more agreeable. Destroy
love and friendship, what remains in the world worth accepting?"

Next we quote his famous statement of the principle of _utility_ in
morals:--

"There has been a controversy started of late much better worth
examination, concerning the general foundation of morals; whether
they be derived from reason or from sentiment; whether we attain
the knowledge of them by a chain of argument and induction, or by an
immediate feeling and finer internal sense; whether, like all sound
judgment of truth and falsehood, they should be the name to every
rational intelligent being; or whether like the perception of beauty
and deformity, they be founded entirely on the particular fabric and
constitution of the human species. The ancient philosophers, though they
often affirm that virtue is nothing but conformity to reason, yet, in
general, seem to consider morals as deriving their existence from taste
and sentiment. On the other hand, our modern inquirers, though they
also talk much of the beauty of virtue, and, deformity of vice, yet have
commonly endeavored to account for these distinctions by metaphysical
reasonings, and by deductions from the most abstract principles of
the understanding. Such confusion reigned in these subjects, that an
opposition of the greatest consequence could prevail between one system
and another, and even in the parts of almost each