Volume 1

Thelyphthora; or, a treatise on female ruin, in its causes, effects, consequences, prevention, and remedy; considered on the basis of the divine law under the following heads, viz. marriage, whoredom and fornication, adultery, polygamy, divorce, with many other incidental matters, particularly including an examination of the principles and tendency of Stat. 26 Geo. II. c. 33, commonly called The marriage act / [Anon].

  • Martin Madan
Date:
1780-1781
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thelyphthora; or, a treatise on female ruin, in its causes, effects, consequences, prevention, and remedy; considered on the basis of the divine law under the following heads, viz. marriage, whoredom and fornication, adultery, polygamy, divorce, with many other incidental matters, particularly including an examination of the principles and tendency of Stat. 26 Geo. II. c. 33, commonly called The marriage act / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [ 02ג ] other, and, upon examination, they will ulually be found as much alike as the image and the mold it is caft in. Though it be befide my defign, in this treatife, to confider the fubjedts thereof on any other footing than as they appear in the fcriptures ^ yet I will fo far depart from my purpofe, as to take notice of a popular argument agair^polygamy^ which,־ in the minds of fome learned and confi- derate men, has been of fuch importance, as to outweigh all that could be faid for it. It is this—The males and females brought into the world are nearly on a balance, only allowing a little excefs on the fide of the males; whence it follows, that nature intends only one wife for the fame perfon ; if they have niore, fome others muft ^ go without ^ So muil it be even upon the principle of mono-‘ gamy ; for if, according to thefe calculators, there be more ?nales than females^ it is not poiTible that man can have a wife\ fome muji go without* How- ever, a departure either way from the original pro- portion of one male and one female^ deifroys all argu- snents which can be drawn from thence againif po- lygamy ; for the precedent which this might other- wife have been, being departed from by the Creator himfelf, it of courfe ceafes with refpedt to his crea- tures. Major Grant obferves, that a little excefs on the fide of the males—“ is to make up for the extΓt^?rdinary expence thereof in ivar and at