434 NEW A TLANTIS. 



marriage out of office ; for marriage is ordained a remedy for unlawful 

 concupiscence, and natural concupiscence seemeth as a spur to mar 

 riage ; but when men have at hand a remedy more agreeable to their 

 corrupt will, marriage is almost expulsed. And therefore there are 

 with you seen infinite men that marry not, but choose rather a libertine 

 ,nnd impure single life than to be yoked in marriage ; and many that 

 do marry, marry late, when the prime and strength of their years is 

 past ; and when they do marry, what is marriage to them but a very 

 bargain, wherein is sought alliance, or portion, or reputation, with 

 some desire almost iudifferent of issue, and not the faithful nuptial 

 union of man and wife that was first instituted. Neither is it possible 

 that those who have cast away so basely so much of their strength, 

 should greatly esteem children, being of the same matter, as chaste 

 men do. So neither during marriage is the case much amended, as it 

 ought to be if those things were tolerated only for necessity. No, but 

 they remain still as a very affront to marriage ; the haunting of those 

 dissolute places, or resort to courtezans, is no more punished in married 

 men than in bachelors : and the depraved custom of change, and the 

 delight in meretricious embracements, where sin is turned into art, 

 maketh marriage a dull thing, and a kind of imposition or tax. 

 They hear you defend these things as done to avoid greater evils, as 

 advoutries, deflowering of virgins, unnatural lust, and the like : but 

 they say this is a preposterous wisdom, and they call it Lot s offer, 

 who, to save his guests from abusing, offered his daughters. Nay, they 

 say further, that there is little gained in this, for that the same vices 

 and appetites do still remain and abound, unlawful lust being like a 

 furnace, that if you stop the flames altogether, it will quench, but if 

 you give it any vent, it will rage. As for masculine love, they have no 

 touch of it ; and yet there are not so faithful and inviolate friendships 

 in the world again as are there : and to speak generally, as I said 

 before, I have not read of any such chastity in any people as theirs. 

 And their usual saying is, that whosoever is unchaste cannot reverence 

 himself. And they say, that the reverence of a man s self is, next 

 religion, the chiefest bridle of all vices.&quot; And when he had said this, 

 the good Jew 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 I confess the 

 righteousness of Bensalem was greater than 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 

 marriage. They allow no polygamy. They have ordained that none. 

 dp intermarry or contract until a month be past from their first inter 

 view. Marriage without consent of parents they do not make void, 

 but they mulct it in the inheritors ; for the children of such marriages 

 ::re not admitted to inherit above a third part of their parent s inherit- 

 -nee. I have read in a book of one of your men of a feigned common 

 wealth, where the married couple are permittee}, before they contract, 



