1 693-] LIFE WITHOUT WIVES INSUPPORTABLE. 121 



which I was not aware, alledg'd briskly, a new Eeason for our 

 Departure : which was so agreeable to the relish of the rest, 

 that it occasion'd a new Discourse, and all my Arguments 

 were forgotten. Do you imagine, said this young Man,^ 

 That we will condemn ourselves to spend all our Lives here 

 unthoiit Wives. Do you think your Earthly Paradise more 

 excellent, than that which God jpre^ard for Adam, ; ivhere he 

 declared with his Mouth, it is not good that Man shoud he alone: 

 I reply'd,^ My dear Friend, Adam's Wife proved such a Curse 

 to him, and all his Posterity, that certainly our Paradise 

 wou'd not he much improved hy the Company of such an Eve 

 among us. They all Laugh'd, and what I little thought of, 

 all the Discourse was afterwards on the Subject of the 

 Ladies, which was, as is said, the Gospel of the Day.^ I soon 

 saw where the Shooe pinch'd,^ and in tlie reign of Quolihets 

 some fine Wit wou'd certainly have said on this occasion, there 

 was not one of my Adventurers who wou'd not have lov'd 

 a Ghimhie^ much better than a Bodrigo. The most Moder- 

 ate of us (and 'twas time to be moderate after Fifty and I 

 do not know how many more Winters) put on a serious Air ; 

 and the business of Marriage and Women not being a ques- 

 tion that is entirely decided, for or against it, more than one of 

 our Company joyn'd with him, as to the Inconveniences that 

 attended them. 'Twas said that an eternal Slavery, and a 

 just and natural Love of Liberty were incompatible ; that 

 'twas a strange Eesolution to subscribe one's self voluntarilv, 

 to a Bondage that has no end. And if all Animals were 



1 Evidently Taul Benelle. 



2 In orig. : " repondit quelcun." 



3 In orig. : " De I'abondance du coenr la bouclic parla," wLich is 

 omitted by translator. 



4 "II ne me fat pas difficile de voir oii gissit le lieure (si je puis 

 ajouter proverbe a proverbe)." 



° La Belle Chimene, or Ximena, daughter of Couut Lozano de 

 Gormaz, who married the Cid, Rodrigue Diaz de Bivar. {Le Cid, 

 written by Le grand Curneillc in 1636.) 



