I have undertaken his cause. He has given me leave, yet not without
reluctance, to put him into possession of his own house; and to place in
it for him his unhappy sister, whom he has hitherto slighted, because
unhappy. It is hard, he told me, (and wept, poor fellow, when he said
it,) that he cannot be permitted to die quietly in his own house!--The
fruits of blessed keeping these!----

Though but lately apprized of her infidelity, it now comes out to have
been of so long continuance, that he has no room to believe the boys to
be his: yet how fond did he use to be of them!

To what, Lovelace, shall we attribute the tenderness which a reputed
father frequently shows to the children of another man?--What is that, I
pray thee, which we call nature, and natural affection? And what has man
to boast of as to sagacity and penetration, when he is as easily brought
to cover and rear, and even to love, and often to prefer, the product of
another's guilt with his wife or mistress, as a hen or a goose the eggs,
and even young, of others of their kind?

Nay, let me ask, if instinct, as it is called, in the animal creation,
does not enable them to distinguish their own, much more easily than we,
with our boasted reason and sagacity, in this nice particular, can do?

If some men, who have wives but of doubtful virtue, considered this
matter duly, I believe their inordinate ardour after gain would be a good
deal cooled, when they could not be certain (though their mates could)
for whose children they were elbowing, bustling, griping, and perhaps
cheating, those with whom they have concerns, whether friends,
neighbours, or more certain next-of-kin, by the mother's side however.

But I will not push this notion so far as it might be carried; because,
if propagated, it might be of unsocial or unnatural consequence; since
women of virtue would perhaps be more liable to suffer by the mistrusts
and caprices or bad-hearted and foolish-headed husbands, than those who
can screen themselves from detection by arts and hypocrisy, to which a
woman of virtue cannot have recourse. And yet, were this notion duly and
generally considered, it might be attended with no bad effects; as good
education, good inclinations, and established virtue, would be the
principally-sought-after qualities; and not money, when a man (not
biased by mere personal attractions) was looking round him for a partner
in his fortunes, and for a mother of his future childre