394 NEW ATLANTIS. 



road of any such chastity in any people as theirs. And 

 their usual saying is, Thai whosoever is unchaste cannot 

 reverence himself ; and they say, That the reverence of 

 a man s self is, next religion, the chief est bridle of all 

 vices.^ And when he had said this, the good Jew 



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paused a little ; whereupon I, far more willing to hear 

 him speak on than to speak myself, yet thinking it 

 decent that upon his pause of speech I should not be 

 altogether silent, said only this ; &quot; That I would say 

 to him, as the widow of Sarepta said to Elias ; that he 

 was come to bring to memory our sins ; and that .1 

 confess the righteousness of Bensalem was greater than 



^J- - - O 



the righteousness of Europe.&quot; At which speech he 

 bowed his head, and went on in this manner : &quot; They 

 have also many wise and excellent laws touching mar 

 riage. They allow no polygamy. They have ordained 

 that none do intermarry or contract, until a month be 

 passed from their first interview. Marriage without 

 consent of parents they do not make void, but they 

 mulct it in the inheritors : for the children of such 

 I marriages are not admitted to inherit above a third 

 part of their parents inheritance. I have read in a 

 book of one of your men, of a Feigned Commonwealth, 

 where the married couple are permitted, before they 

 contract, to see one another naked. 1 This they dis 

 like ; for they think it a scorn to give a refusal after 

 so familiar knowledge: but because of many hidden 

 defects in men and women s bodies, 2 they have a more 

 civil way ; for they have near every town a couple of 

 pools, (which they call Adam and Eve s jjools,) where 

 it is .permitted to one of the friends of the man, and 



1 See More s Utopia, book ii. R. L. E. 



2 The translation adds qui matrimonium posted inftlix rf.dd.tr e possint. 



