PHILOSOPHY, MORAL. 



true, all are not interested in this last rea- 

 son : nevertheless, it is a reason to all for 

 abstaining from any conduct which 

 tends, in it> general consequence, to 

 obstruct marriage ; for whatever pro- 

 motes the happiness of the majority, is 

 binding 1 upon the whole. These con- 

 siderations prove that the restraint of 

 marriage-institutions is an essentially im- 

 portant obligation. It may be violated by 

 vagrant concubinage, or by cohabitation 

 limited to a single individual. The former 

 will be the object of the next paragraph: 

 the latter cannot be placed upon the same 

 footing with it, in several respects ; but 

 as it can answer the primary public ends 

 of marriage in only a few cases, as it tends 

 to annihilate the individual advantages 

 which are naturally derived from it (both 

 as to moral welfare and to comfort), and 

 as it decidedly discountenances marriage, 

 and consequently, in the present state 

 of society, countenances fornication, it 

 follows that it is immoral. " Laying aside 

 the injunctions of the Scriptures," says 

 Paley, " the plain account of the question 

 seems to be this: it is immoral, because 

 it is pernicious, that men and women 

 should cohabit, without undertaking 

 certain irrevocable obligations, and mutu- 

 ally conferring certain civil rights; if, 

 therefore, the law has annexed these 

 rights and obligations to certain forms, 

 so that they cannot be secured or under- 

 taken by any other means, which is the 

 case here (for whatever the parties may 

 promise to each other, nothing but the 

 marriage ceremony can make their por- 

 mise irrevocable), it becomes in the 

 same degree immoral, that men and 

 women should cohabit without the in- 

 terposition of these forms." 



32. With respect to the crime of forni- 

 cation, it is to be observed, that promis- 

 cuous concubinage tends greatly to dis- 

 courage marriage, and therefore to de- 

 feat the several beneficial purposes spok- 

 en of in the last paragraph. The reader 

 will learn to comprehend the magnitude 

 of this mischief, by attending to the im- 

 portance and variety of the uses to which 

 marriage is subservient ; and by recollect- 

 ing that the malignity and moral quality 

 of each crime is not to be estimated by 

 the particular effect of one offence, or 

 of one person's offending, but by the 

 general tendency and consequence of 

 crimes of the same nature. If one in- 

 stance of licentious indulgence be innocent 

 or allowable, why should not more ? and 

 if allowable in one, why should not li- 

 centiousness become general ? and if it 



were so, what dreadful consequencc 

 would follow ? Every instance ot licenti- 

 ous conduct lias the direct and decided 

 effect of leading to these dreadful conse- 

 quences (which none but a purely malevo- 

 lent being could contemplate without 

 horror) ; and every instance is therefore 

 criminal, altogether independent of its in- 

 dividual effects and tendencies. Again, for- 

 nication supposes prostitution, and pros- 

 titution brings and leaves the victims of it 

 to almost certain misery. It is no small 

 quantity of misery in the aggregate, which, 

 between want, disease, and insxilt, is suffer- 

 ed by those outcasts of human society who 

 infest populous cities : the whole of which 

 is a general consequence of fornication, 

 and to the increase and continuance of 

 which every act and instance of fornica- 

 tion contributes. Further, fornication 

 produces habits of ungovernable lewd- 

 ness, which introduce the more aggrava- 

 ted crimes of seduction, adultery, viola- 

 tion, Sec. Of this passion it has been 

 truly said, that irregularity has no limits ; 

 that one excess draws on to another ; that 

 the most easy, therefore, as well as the 

 most excellent way of being virtuous, 

 is to be so entirely. However it be ac- 

 counted for, the criminal intercourse of 

 the sexes corrupts and depraves the 

 mind and moral character more than any 

 single species of vice whatsoever. That 

 ready perception of guilt, that prompt 

 and decisive resolution against it, which 

 constitutes a virtuous character, is sel 

 dom found in persons addicted to these 

 indulgences. They prepare an easy ad- 

 mission for every sin that seeks it ; are, 

 in low life, usually the first stage in men's 

 progress to the most desperate wicked- 

 ness ; and, in high life, to that lamented 

 dissoluteness of principle which manifests 

 itself in a profligacy of public conduct, 

 and a contempt of the obligations of reli- 

 gion and moral probity. Add to this, that 

 habits of libertinism incapacitate and in- 

 dispose the mind for all intellectual, mo- 

 ral, and religious pleasures ; which is a 

 great loss to any man's happiness. Last- 

 ly, fornication perpetuates a disease, which 

 may be accounted one of the sorest ma- 

 ladies of human nature ; and the effects 

 of which are said to visit the constitution 

 of even distant generations. The pas- 

 sion being natural, proves that it was in- 

 tended to be gratified ; but under what 

 restrictions, or whether without any, must 

 be collected from other considerations. 

 If fornication be criminal, all those incen- 

 tives which lead to it are accessaries to 

 the crime, and as such are criminal (inde 



