manners of men are neither refined by elegance, nor softened by urbanity. Association is austere and cold. The formal salute, the silent repose, the torpid air, the dull enjoyment, the cushioned indolence, are enlivened or diversified by no gleam of gaiety or of pleasure, by no occasional sprightliness of conversation, and by little interchange of social and benevolent feeling. The Greek was less dependent on the state of female society which he found or confirmed. He was urged to exertion by affairs of state, or kindled into gaiety by public festivals. But the Mussulman has no such resource. He may be stimulated or compelled to exertion by the fury of fanaticism or by the necessities of life, but little remains to soften and civilize his mind, to call forth his faculties to salutary and humanizing exercise, and to counteract the depressing influence of the civil despotism to which he is subject. In literature, since the days of the Caliphs, he has displayed neither taste nor fancy; and, by the exclusive temper with which he has erected the Harem, and pronounced his interdict on the sex, he has not merely retarded the progress of refinement, but contributed to perpetuate the vices of a rude, and, apparently, irremediable barbarism.

SECT, IV.

No polygamy under the gospel-Equal and salutary laws of marriage and divorce-The husband and the wife subject to the same rule, and bound by the same obligations--Penalty of violated duty to each-Reciprocal engagement-Domestic peace founded on domestic affection-No slavery, no despotism-Rules laid down for mutual observance-Forcible and beautiful, as well as equitable-The sanctity of marriage proclaimed-Consequences in the early state of the church, and in later times-Result on public and domestic

manners.

THE domestic relations, from which flows a large portion of the miseries and comforts of human life, have been modified and impaired, as we have seen, under other institutions of religion, by polygamy and divorce. The first of these laid the foundation of a despotism as pernicious as it was unjust; the second has been always pliant, and often instrumental, to the purposes of the discontented and the profligate; and both have tended, in a high degree, to diminish the dignity and happiness of one sex, to corrupt and harden the temper and manners of the other, and to destroy that mutual harmony and attachment, and that union of interest and of sentiment, which constitute the genuine felicity of married life. The consequence of this state of things has been traced. In the East, the vile seclusion and abject degradation of the harem still afford an explicit commentary on the influence and spirit of polytheism; and if the sex, in the more enlightened regions of Greece and Italy, were exposed to the tyranny of domestic despotism, we may trace the degradation to that legal facility of divorce by which they were rendered

perpetually subject to the insult and disgrace of unmerited repudiation, and by which the husband being exalted into a master, the wife was humbled into a slave.

The laws which thus tainted domestic manners, or thus degraded the character of the female sex, have not been permitted to sully the pages of the Gospel. The legislator of Christianity, who came in the spirit of purity and peace, was not to legislate for one half of the human species at the expense of the other. Under his dispensation not only was polygamy to cease, with all the vices and sorrows of which it was the source, but also that licence of divorce which introduced so much disorder and confusion into the very bosom of domestic intercourse, and afforded every liberty of change which caprice or profligacy might desire. The union of marriage was no longer to be dissolvable at will by a new passion for a new object. No repudiation was to be permitted, except in the case of convicted adultery. The husband was to enjoy as little power as the wife to tear asunder the bonds by which they were connected; and both were to observe, under equal responsibility, the essential duty of inviolable fidelity. The wantonness of change in either party was thus discouraged and restrained; the fear of change was thus quieted and assured; and the interdict which was uttered for such purpose, was to become the efficient cause of domestic welfare, and the virtual guardian of domestic virtue.

The law is express. The violation of the law is no less explicitly denounced. "Whosoever shall "put away his wife, save for the cause of fornication, "causeth her to commit adultery; and whosoever

"shall marry her that is divorced, committeth adultery*" Divorce could not be restricted by a declaration more clear or more solemn. The most subtle cannot evade, and the most simple can understand it; and the double responsibility which is imposed on the offender, responsibility for his own guilt, and for the guilt which he may cause, might be thought sufficient to enforce the prohibition, and to repress the crime.

But Christ looked from the conduct to the heart; and in the heart he sought to lay the foundation of obedience. It is not enough that man conform externally to the law. Crime may exist without deed. The professors of the gospel are, therefore, admonished, not merely to observe the letter, but the spirit, of the precept; that is, to watch over their passions and their thoughts, and to preserve from contamination the purity of the mind. The secret emotion, the incipient desire, the inward movement, the glance of the eye, may merit the punishment due to the adulterer. If the guilt be conceived within, the law is violated; and the authority, which proclaimed the law, has also proclaimed, that "Whoso looketh upon a woman to "lust after her, hath already committed adultery "with her in his heart t."

And the obedience which is here required is not to consist in a cold and formal observance. The union of marriage is of a sacred character, not to be cemented by worldly and mercenary considerations, but by those consecrated affections which preserve the fidelity and unity of attachment as well in poverty

* Matt. v. 31, 32. See also Matt. x.9; Luke xvi. 6; 1 Corinth. vii. 10, 11.

+ Matt. v. 28.

as in wealth; and which is capable of enduring without diminution, or rather is brightened while it endures, the rudest and the most painful trials., The husband and wife, we are told, should be prepared to sacrifice for each other, if necessary, every affection which they had hitherto been, accustomed to consider as most dear and binding. No other relationship of life is to be suffered to interfere between them. They are to leave father, and mother, and sister, and brother, rather than suffer the sacredness of their common engagement to be impaired *. They are to become one; to be united in the sameness of interest and of heart; and "whether in sickness or in health, in joy or in sorrow," they are to administer to each other with mutual fidelity "so long as they both shall live."

The duties of marriage are not left to float in ambiguity, or to depend on fine theories and subtle speculations. They are briefly summed up for our edification in the most cogent and intelligible language. "Hus"bands," it is said, "love your wives, love them

as yourselves, love them as Christ so loved his "church. Dwell with them in knowledge, be one "with them, and give honour unto them as to the "weaker vessels, and as being heirs together of the 66 grace of life"-" "Wives, submit with reverence to 66 your husbands, as unto the Lord, for the husband "is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of "the church. Be subject, therefore, unto them, "and love them. Let them behold your chaste con"versation coupled with fear. And as a bride is

* "For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife." Ephes. v. 31. Mark x. 7, 8, 9.