278 THEPHILOSOPHY 



general, all the fmall birds. The affiduity, attention, mutual affec- 

 tion, laborious vigilance, and fteadfaft fidelity of pairing animals, 

 are truly admirable, and, to ingenuous minds, afford the raoft exem- 

 plary admonitions to virtue and conjugal attachment. 



Befide this forcible impulfe of feledtion implanted by Nature in 

 man, and in every other pairing animal, fome other fadts deferve to 

 be noticed. In all pairing animals, including, of courfe, the human 

 race, the males and females produced are nearly equal. This is a 

 plain indication that Nature deftined thefe animals to pair, or to 

 marry. Injuftice, jealoufy, animofity, and every animal calamity, 

 would enfue, if this order of Nature were encroached upon in crea- 

 tures who are endowed with the inftinft of fexual fele(5tion. 



It is not incurious to remark, that human inftitutions often con- 

 tradiifl the laws of Nature. The dunghill cock and hen, in a natural 

 ftate, pair. In a domeftic ftate, however, the cock is a jealous tyrant, 

 and the hen a proftitute. But, even in this unnatural fociety, a feledlion 

 is fometimes to be obferved. The fame phenomenon is exhibited 

 among mankind, when plnced in certain fituations. Like domeftic 

 poultry, the Turks, and fome Afiatic and African nations, influen- 

 ced by an accurfed government, and by an execrable religion, rebel 

 againft the law of love, and of reciprocal attachment. In thefe 

 countries, a rich man not only engroffes, but imprifons and tor- 

 tures, as many beautiful women as his fortune enables him to fup- 

 port. Deftitute of all thofe endearments which arife from mental 

 communication, from parental tendernefs and affedion, from mutual 

 confidence and folace, he is, while young, perpetually tormented 

 with jealous apprehenfions. As he advances in life, his jealoufy and 

 his terror augment. Though his females are fcrupuloufly guarded 

 from every intrufion, by fervile and mutilated wretches, his fears 



increafe 



