adulteries not to be sins, and who say, that
adulterers have an acknowledgement of God equally with those who keep to
their wives. They are all of them from the Christian world; and the
angels have been to see how many there were there who believe adulteries
to be sins; and out of a thousand they did not find a hundred." He then
told me that the nine hundred say concerning adulteries, "Who does not
know that the delight of adultery is superior to the delight of
marriage; that adulterers are in continual heat, and thence in alacrity,
industry, and active life, superior to those who live with only one
woman; and that on the other hand, love with a married partner grows
cold, and sometimes to such a degree, that at length scarce a single
expression or act of fellowship with her is alive; that it is otherwise
with harlots; that the mortification of life with a wife, arising from
defect of ability, is recruited and vivified by adulteries; and is not
that which recruits and vivifies of more consequence than that which
mortifies? What is marriage but allowed adultery? Who knows any
distinction between them? Can love be forced? and yet love with a wife
is forced by a covenant and laws. Is not love with a married partner the
love of the sex, which is so universal that it exists even among birds
and beasts? What is conjugial love but the love of the sex? and the love
of the sex is free with every woman. The reason why civil laws are
against adulteries is, because lawgivers have believed that to prohibit
adultery was connected with the public good; and yet lawgivers and
judges sometimes commit adultery, and say among themselves, 'Let him
that is without sin cast the first stone.' Who does not know that the
simple and religious alone believe adulteries to be sins, and that the
intelligent think otherwise, who like us view them by the light of
nature? Are not adulteries as prolific as marriages? Are not
illegitimate children as alert and qualified for the discharge of
offices and employments as the legitimate? Moreover families, otherwise
barren, are provided with offspring; and is not this an advantage and
not a loss? What harm can come to a wife from admitting several rivals?
And what harm can come to a man? To say that it brings disgrace upon a
man, is a frivolous idea grounded in mere fancy. The reason why adultery
is against the laws and statutes of the church, is owing to the
ecclesiastic order for the sake of power; but what h