18° Lhe Enguirer. No. XIIL...Ac/wer to Amicus on Matrimony. fJulys 
notice of the fenfes, the judgments of 
different_perfons will commonly be the 
fame. Concerning phyfical powers, the 
effeéts of which are fubjeéted to expeii- 
ment, a general’ agreement may be ex- 
pecied. But, with refpect to hiforical 
faéts, which muft be reported on human 
tefiimony, and cannot pe judged ef with- 
out weighing varicus circumftances ; 
with refpeét to moral and political quef- 
tions, the accurate decifion of which 
requiyes a diligent examination of nume- 
rous facts; and with refpect to intellec- 
tual beings, and their powers and aua- 
ities, known only from -inference cr 
analogy, opinions, however fatisfactory, 
muft be lable to great diverfity. On 
thefe latter fubjeéts. as one has well ob- 
ferved*, it.is difmcult to find out truth, 
becaufe it}is in fuch inconiiderabie pro- 
. portions feattered in a mafs of opiniative 
uncertajnaties, like the filver in Hiero’s 
crown of gold. 
Eirrer 
Vhg 
and its infeparable concomitant; 
diverfity of opinion, are entailed by an 
irreverfible,decree upon human nature. 
‘Lhefe deiecis may, however, be in 
fome meafure corrected. Without the 
aid of perfecution, which can at moft 
only enforce an hypocritical uniformity of 
prorefiion, inftead of unity of belief, the 
liberal proteétion and encouragement of 
free enquiry may cherifh the love™ of 
truth, and promote the honeft and ardent 
parfuit of knowledge. Individual atten- 
tien to moral difcipiine may cure thofe 
difeales of the mind, which multiply and 
perpetuate erroneous opinions. If the 
projeét of an eniverfal philofopnical cha- 
racter, in which the prefent-ambiguities 
of language fnould be avoided, and all 
the varieties of human ideas fhould be 
correctly reprefented, and claffically ar- 
ranged, be tco dificult to be accomplithed, 
men may, at leaft, learn to ufe with 
greater. eaution and fkill, the fymbols 
with which they are already furnifhed. 
New infuitutions of education adapted to 
the prefent ftate of knowledge, may pe 
introduced, in the room of the cumbrous 
fyftems, which time has fairly worn out. 
Unprodtable fpeculations may give way 
to fuch literary and {cicntific purfuits, as 
promife general utility. And if, aiter 
all, knowledge fhculd never become fo 
perfect and univerfal, as to banifh diver- 
fity. of opinion, men. may, at-Jleaft, be 
heartily united in profecuting the great 
object of the common geod, and, with 
vefpet to every point of doubtful fpe- 
culation, may candidly AGREE TO DIF- 
FER. 
SO IE IAL LC ED 
# Glanville. 
To the Edstor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SER s ; 
your correfpondent, Amicus, in the 
~ Magazine for May, afks, whether or 
not it be contrary to {cripture, to marry 
a wife’s filter ?-The 18th chapter of Le- 
viticus is the bar to many unions, and has 
been the great regulator of matrimonial 
connections, fince the pailing of the 32 
Hen. VIII, which declares it lawful for all 
perfons to contract matrimony, that be 
not prohibited by God’s law to marry.. 
The roth verfe-of this chapter is, indeed, 
no direét prehibition to “the marrying a 
wife's fifter, but the reafoning upon the » 
cafe is conclufve. By the e6ch verfe, it 
is expretsly forbidden to marsy a brozher’s 
wife; and, upon examination, we find 
her'to be exaétly in the fame degree of 
afinity tous as a wifes Gfter: the mar- 
riage with fuch fifter, is. therefore, pre- 
hibited. uia eandem habent rationem 
propinguitatis cum eis qui nominatim - 
prehibentur.—“ There are feverai de- 
grees,’ (fays Burn, in his Eccl. Law, 
3 vol. p. 402, 3 edit.) = which, though 
not expre{sly named in the Levitical law, 
are prohibited by that, and by the fatute 
of Hen. VILL, by parity of reafoa.” This 
mode of reafoning might: be equally fup- 
ported upon John’s reproef of Herod, 
with which your correfpondent feems to 
be acquainted. So far as the law of the | 
land is to be confulted upon this fubject 
it is very decifive, and of the iliegality of 
this match, which Amicus is anxicbs to 
form, he muft be aware if refiding, as 
his letter intimates, at the Temple ; and 
that it has aétually been made a queftion, 
whether it is lawful te marry a wife's 
fifter’s daughter. This anfwer may not 
be fatisfa€tory to your corre fpondent, 
who will remember that Henry VIII 
married Catharioe of Arragon, widow of 
his brother Arthur; that an a€t of paril- 
ament declared the validity of fuch mar- 
riage: and, by a necedary confequence, 
the validity of all marriaves in like cir- 
cumftances. But the patting fuch act 

-was a, felf-evident proof, that the mar- 
riage had been illegally contrattea, that 
it was an exception to general rule, and 
that it needed the extraordinary exertion 
of legiflative authority, to rectify the 
error that had been committed. ~ 
There was fometime in the year 1774,2 
feries of letters upon the legal degrees of 
marriage, publifhed by John Alleyne, efq. 
in whick the author endeavoured to fup- 
port the propriety of fuch conne€tions 
as Amicus would fain think night. i. 
know not where this book can Be now 
procured; it might affurd fothe confola- 
3 Y see 
tion to your correipondent. inf. S. 
