A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed/Chapter 10
CHAP. X.
Of marrying with Inequality of Blood.
nequality of Blood: This is an Article in Matrimony which they, who would be thought to expect any Felicity in a married Life, ought very carefully to avoid, especially if it relates to Families also. How scandalously have I known a Lady treated in a Family, though her Fortune has been the very raising, or at least, restoring the Circumstances of the Person who has taken her, only because she has been beneath them in Degree? That he has not been of noble Blood, or of what they call an antient Family; that she has not been what they call a Gentlewoman, and yet they have not found any Defect either in her Education or Behaviour? How has she been scorned by the Relations, and the Title been hardly granted her, which the Lord of Necessity gives her? And all because of what they call Mechanick Original. Again, Sir G——— W——— has married a Lady out of a noble Family. Sir G——— is Master of a vast Fortune, has about seven thousand Pounds a Year Estate, and Cash enough in ready Money to purchase as much more. But, alas! he is of no Family, his Father was a Citizen, and purchased a Coat of Arms with his Money, but hardly can tell who his Grandfather was; and the Lady is taught to despise him at that rate, that it is hardly reconcileable to her Sense, that she should ever entertain him in the Quality of a Husband. It is true, that she had but a mean Fortune, viz. five thousand Pounds. What then? she had much rather have married a Scotch Nobleman, as she could have done, the Earl of ———, though he had not above a thousand Pounds a Year. But then she had had a Man of Quality, and she had had a Coronet upon her Coach; she had match'd like her self, and mingled with noble Blood, as she ought to have done. But now she is Debased and Dishonoured, she is levelled with the Canail; the old Countess, her Lady-Mother, considered nothing but the Money; and d it, she had rather have been King Ch———'s Whore, and then she might have been a Duchess, and her Children had been Dukes of course, and had had noble Blood in their Veins by the lowest degree, and royal Blood on the other Side; whereas now, in short, she looks upon her self to be little better than Prostituted, and that meerly for an Estate.
With this Elevation of Pride, concerning Blood and Family, she treats her Husband with the utmost Disdain: She will have her Equipage by her self; she will not so much as give his Liveries, but the Livery of her own Family; the won't have his Coat of Arms painted upon her Coach, or engraven upon her Plate; much less will she suffer her Coat of Arms to be quartered with his, if she could help it, on any Occasion; and 'tis a great Mortification to her, that her eldest Son, attach'd to his Father, and honouring his Person, learns not to copy after her; and is not ashamed of the Blood of his Paternal Line, by whom he inherits so fair an Estate.
My Lady carries on her Resentment so far, that she won't visit her Husband's Sister, tho' she has married an Earl, because she disdains to rank below her; and as to all the rest of Sir G———'s Relations, they are looked upon as not worth making a Bow to them, other than she would do to a Country Farmer, that comes to her Ladyship to pay his Rent.
Among her Intimates, she laments her Misfortune that she should be so dishonoured in her Match; wonders at her self, how she submitted to let such a Fellow come to Bed to her, and is horridly provoked that she has had any Children; for the present she has parted Beds with him a great while; so long, that she thanks God she has forgot him in that relation; she made a Political Quarrel with him three Years before, and she swore to him, he should have no more to do with her that Way, she would as soon lie with her Coachman; and she has kept her Vow most sacred: And was it not for some Conveniences of her Way of Living, Equipages, the Mansion House, which is new and fine, and cost fifty thousand Pounds building, and the like, she would feign another Quarrel, and step out of his House too, and then she should be my Lord ———'s Daughter again, not my Lady ———, the Wife of a City Knight, which is much at one to her, as if she had been Mrs. ———, the Shop-keeper's Wife at Winchester, or Mrs. Any-Body; or especially it had been much more honourable to the Family, to have been Lady Mayoress, then, at least, she had been Quality for a Year; and her good Man had been once a Lord, though his Father had been the Lord knows who.
When she talks to his Servants, that is to say, those that are his Servants too, she taunts them with such an Air of Haughtiness, as if they were Dogs, not Servants; while she treats her own Servants with a difference, as if they were as much superior to his, as she thinks she is to their Master.
The honest Gentleman her Husband, is a Man of Sense and Breeding, and particularly of abundance of Good-humour: He thought at first he should have been very happy in a Wife, and he chose her for what he thought she had, (but she had it not) namely, good Temper, Sense and Sincerity. He could have bettered his Fortune in a Wife, by thirty or forty thousand Pounds, whenever he had pleased; so that he neither married her for her Family, or her Fortune. Tho' he was not a Lord, he was able to buy a Lord when he pleased; and as much despised a Title, unless it had been by Blood, or obtained by special Merit, as she adored it, only for the meer Equipage of it. His disappointment in her Temper was a great Affliction to him, and he did not fail to expostulate it with her, tho' with the utmost Civility. But Pride had gotten the ascendant so much over her Temper, that she was resolved to ruin her Family-Peace, as it were, in meer revenge, for her false Step, as she called it, in marrying beneath her Quality; tho' she really revenged it only upon her self.
Again; her Pride was attended with such unhappy Circumstances, that it exposed her very much, and made her the common Jest of all the Families of Gentry, and even Nobility also, of which there are a great many in the Country where she lives: As I have said, that Sir G——— was a well-bred Gentleman, and a Man of Sense, he was acceptable to every Body; kept the best Company, and was very well received in all Places; nor, however the Lady acted, did the Nobility, even of the first Rank, think it below them, both to Converse with him, and even to Visit him, which relished so ill with her Ladyship, that he could hardly refrain her little Sarcasms, even before them; reflecting on Persons of Quality keeping Company below themselves, as she call'd it, and of the antient Nobility debasing their Blood, by mingling with Mechanicks; that their Ancestors scorned to intermarry with the Commonalty, and kept the Honour of their Families entire and untainted.
She was roundly answered once, at her own Table, by a certain noble Lord of an antient Family, who told her:
Madam, says he, your Ladyship very much mistakes the Case. In former Days, the Nobility possess'd great Estates, and had powerful Dependencies; the Landed Interest was theirs, and almost all the Possession was their own; the Commons held under them either in Vassalage or Villainage, either as Vassals, Tenants, Cottagers, or Servants; and then it was indeed beneath a Man of Quality to match among the Vassals.
But then two Things are to be observed, which have happened in England since that Time.
i. The Commons have grown rich by Industry and Commerce.
2. The Nobility are become poor, or at least poorer, be it by Sloth and Luxury, I do not determine.
The Consequence is this, that the Nobility sell their Estates, and the Commons buy them: And so the Landed Interest is separated; and the Commons possess, I believe, ten Parts of twelve, hardly leaving the other two Parts of twelve to the better guided Nobility.
Then, Madam, of these whom we still call the Commons, great Numbers of them are of noble Families; for the Gentry bringing their Sons up to Industry and Trade, they have found the Sweets of Commerce in such a manner, that they have raised innumerable Families out of nothing; by which means it now is come to pass, that many of our best Gentry are embarked in Trade; and there are some as good Families among the Tradesmen, as most, out of that Class; we often go into the City to get Fortunes for our Sons; and many noble Families, sunk by the Folly and Luxury of their Predecessors, are restored, by marrying into the Families of those that you call Mechanicks; and, Madam, (added his Lordship) the Children of those Families, thus raised by their Merit, are not easily distinguished from some of the best Houses in the Kingdom.
Here his Lordship thought he had pleased the Lady, because she had three Sons, very fine young Gentlemen, by Sir G———. But, far from being pleased with his Discourse, she could not forbear being almost rude to his Lordship, and told him, the thought the Nobility could not Match so among the Commons, without corrupting their Blood; and that those that had done so ought to be no more esteemed Gentlemen, or to rank among the antient Families.
His Lordship smiled. Well, Madam, says his Lordship, then you must let the Tradesmen keep their Money too, as well as keep their Daughters; and we shall continue to decline and become poor, by our riotous and extravagant Living, and so, in a few Ages more, the Wealth of the Nation may be almost all in the Hands of the trading Part of the People; and the decayed Nobility may be as Despicable as they may be Poor. Pray, added he, what would all our noble Blood do for us without our Estates? And pray, Madam, says he, be pleased to look into Things, and see how many noble Families are, at this time, the Offspring of Trade; we do not find, that their Posterity are less valued among the Nobility, or less deserve it. Two Dukes, adds his Lordship, are, at this time, the Grandsons, and one Nobleman, the Son of Sir Josiah Child, who was but a Tradesman; and the noble Families of Excester, of Onslow, of Ar———, of many more, are married to the Daughters of Tradesmen; and, on the other hand, the Sons of Sir James Bateman, Sir Thomas Scawen, and several others, are married to the Daughters of our Nobility.
His Lordship was going on; but the begg'd him to say no more of that, fearing he would have brought it down to her self at last; and so the Discourse went off. But the Lady was handsomely reproved.
These are some of the Fruits of unequal Marriages, and in which much of this Matrimonial Whoredom may be committed; and I call it so, because the submitting to lie with a Man, only on the Account of a Settlement or Fortune; at the same time despising, and, in the vilest manner, contemning the Man; is a meer selling the Person for a Slave, or, though the Words are something harsh, prostituting the Person for the sake of the Money. And what is that more or less, according to my Notion, than Matrimonial Whoredom?
The next Article is that of Unsuitable Estates. This is of the same Kind with the last, and, in its Degree, is equally destructive; and therefore I join them together in the same Chapter; the only Difference is, that the first respects a Person of Quality marrying a Mechanick, a Patrician, or one of the Blood of the Patricii, marrying a Plebeian: But this latter looks a Stage lower, and respects only the Difference of Estates, where the Blood may be the same; which Difference, however, is carried on by some to greater Resentments than among the Nobility. This happens frequently among Tradesmen, and is distinguished by many People, very much to their Disadvantage. Sir M——— G——— was a City Baronet, that is, the Son of a Money Baronet; he married a Lady, the Daughter of a rich Citizen, not in the Bloom of her Youth, far from Beautiful; but then he had a vast Fortune with her; all this was well of his Side. But, what is she? Why, in the first Place, bringing her to a level with himself, she has a great deal of Money, that is true, and he has little or Nothing; he has a great deal of good Manners, and good Humour, she very little of either; he is Handsome, she next Door to Frightful: She insults him upon the Inequality of her Fortune. What does he say to her in return? Has he nothing to answer on his Side? Truly, no, not at first. But being a Man of Breeding, as I said above, he took it quietly, and was easy; gave her all manner of Liberties, made no reply, gave her not one ill Word; till, at length, being provoked beyond all possible Degrees of human Patience, he resolved to make her a terrible Return; and, indeed, he was sorely provoked, that he was. He first begg'd of her to be easy and quiet, and to use him better, and manage her self better. She provoked him so much with her vile Reproaches and Reflections, upon his being a Beggar, as she call'd it, and making a Figure with her Money, that one Day it broke out into a Flame that could not be quenched. But it was his particular good Fortune to have several of her own Friends to be Witnesses of the Provocation, and so far to justify him, as, at least, to witness in his Behalf, that her Language was unsufferable.
Nor is it to be wondered at, that when he did break out, he did it with such a Fury that conquered all her Resistance, and that put a full check to her Clamour; for it touch'd her in the most sensible Part, namely, her Character as to Modesty.
He gave her this, even the very first time, in a full broad Side, as the Sailors call it, and when, as I say, her own Relations were present. But he did not do it, till she had long and very often provoked him, by reproaching him with her Fortune, and his want of a Fortune, and that with so much Bitterness, that even some of those Relations of her's begg'd her to forbear, and have done with it; and he, perceiving that Relation inclined to speak, withdrew, to give her an Opportunity, which she improved, and earnestly entreated her to forbear; told her, it was now too late to reflect upon those Things, that they had Money enough to make them both happy; and that, let it be whose it would before, it was a Stock in common now, and she should never make their Lives unhappy now about the foolish Question, who brought it? She told her, she might easily see her Husband was exceedingly moved with what she had said already; and that he would certainly provoke him by such outrageous Usage, to make her some bitter return; that she ought to consider she was a Wife, and that it is always in a Husband's Power to make a Woman's Life uneasy to her, especially when he has Justice on his Side.
She was so far from being prevailed upon by this calm and cool Reasoning, that she flew out into a Passion against her Husband, though he was not in the Room; reviled him over and over with his living gay upon her Fortune, while he was but a Beggar himself, and the like; so that the poor Lady, who had talked so calmly to her, had not room to put in a Word.
In the highth of this Feud the Husband came in again, and calmly desired her to have done, and be quiet, and, at least, to talk no more of it then, when she seemed to be in a Passion. But 'twas all one; she run on till, in a word, she was out of Breath, and began to have done, meerly for want of Strength, not Rage. To proceed:
Well, Madam, says he, now, I hope, 'tis my turn to speak a little; then, turning his Speech to the Lady that had spoken in his Absence, and to her other Relations, he gave them a brief Account how long she had treated him in this Manner; how little Occasion he had given her for it; and with what Patience he had born it: How just it was for him to say, that he could bear it no longer, and that he was resolved to use her as she deserved. Then, turning to his Wife, who still upbraided him with marrying her for her Money: He said, 'tis very true, Madam, I did so; and who the Devil would have married you for any thing else? He added, that if she would find any One to take his Bargain off of his Hands, he would return all the Money again, to be rid of her: And if she could not, since she had taken him, and he was unhappily bound to stand to the Agreement, he insisted, she should act the Part of a Wife, not of a Termagant; of a Gentlewoman, not a Billinsgate, and that, since she had taken him, let her Fortune be what it will, he expected to be used as well, as if he had taken her upon an equal Foot, otherwise he is sold to her for a Slave, which he did not understand to be in the Contract.
She revil'd him upon this, with his taking her Money with design to Abuse her; he reproaches her with giving him her Money and her Person too, upon a worse Occasion; he tells her, he could have lived without her Money better than she could live without a Man; that he only hired himself out to her to be her Servant, (he called it by a harder Name) and that he had earned all her Money by lying with her, which a Porter would hardly have done cheaper.
It is true, this was Bitter: But there were two Misfortunes, on her Side, attending it.
i. That she extorted it from him. And,
2. That it was true; both these joined to excuse the Knight, who otherwise, and as I said, till by long and unsufferable Taunts and ill Usage, he was put a little out of himself, was a Person of all possible Temper and Manners.
This also brings it home to my Point, namely, that these lewd ill-principled Matches are often as Miserable as they are Scandalous, as Unhappy as they are Unseemly; and as they begin in Wickedness, they end in Weakness; for Crime and Shame follow one another.
I shall, perhaps, be asked here, What this Unsuitable and Unequal marrying relates to my Title, and to the Subject I am upon, (viz.) of Matrimonial Whoredom? And why I ramble from my Text? But I shall make it out, that I am not gone from my Subject at all; because almost all those Inequalities and Unsuitable Things, which I complain of as the Bane of Matrimony, are generally the Consequences of those Marriages, which are guided by the Tail rather than the Head; forced on by the Inclination rather than the Understanding, pushed by the Impetuosity of the corrupt Part, not guided by the steddy Results of Reason; the Fruit of Desire not Judgment, and with a View to sensual Pleasure, not solid Enjoyments.
These are the great Moving-Wheels in the Machines of rash and unguided Love; the Passion of Love, not the Quality, is the Weight that makes them move; it is the Fuel of Love, not the Flame; the Flame would be pure, were the Materials that feed it pure: But when the Combustibles are nauseous, the Burning scatters noxious Vapours; like the Stink-Pots, which the Turks used to throw into Ships when they Boarded them, which would poison the poor Men out of their close Quarters, and make them run out, though they were sure to be killed.
SECRET, lewd and ungoverned Desires, make these open and scandalous Doings so frequent; were it all done in a criminal Way, I should take notice of it in Lump, as a Breach of the Laws of God and Man; and, as the Text speaks, an Iniquity to be punished by the Judge, Job xxii. 28. But it is quite otherwise here, the Fire is covered, the Stench is concealed, and we have all the criminal filthy Part acted under the disguise of Virtue, and the Protection of Law. This is the Offence, this is the Grievance complained of; and this the Reason why I give it the new and, perhaps, a little shocking Title of Matrimonial Whoredom.
The meaning is plain; 'tis a Breach of Law under the Protection of the Law; 'tis a Crime, thro' the Policy of Hell, plac'd out of the reach of Justice; 'tis a Sin against the meaning of Matrimony, but within the Letter of it; 'tis a Wickedness couch'd under the Name of Virtue; 'tis, in short, a Devil in Masquerade, whoring in the Vizor of Matrimony, a Sinner dress'd up for a Saint, a foul Disease under the Term of a Decay; 'tis Idolatry under the Cover of true Worship, and, as I said above, Lewdness under the Protection of the Church.
What Excuse can it be to say, that the Law cannot reach it? Are there not many Sins which the Commands of God prohibits and forbids, which, notwithstanding no Law can punish? And are they less Criminal for that, or the more? The Laws of the Land punish no Man for Avarice, yet Covetousness is expressly forbid in the Scripture, and the Love of Money is called the Root of all Evil. The Laws of the Land take no notice of our Anger, Passion, Fighting, Gluttony, Excess of Drink, and several other Things, except Murther, Breach of the Peace, Drunkenness, &c. are the Consequences. You may eat till you gorge your Stomach, and destroy your Life; you may Sip, and Whet, and doze Nature, till it expires in a Lethargick Sotisme; you may Rage, Storm, and make your House a Hell, and the Law takes no Cognisance of you. But no Man will say, they are not all detestable and abhorred Crimes for all this; unbecoming a Man of Sense, and inconsistent with a Man of Religion.
Thus, in the Case before us, the Law is silent, and the Sinner safe, provided you do but marry. Let the Foundation of it be what it will, let the Reason of it be all as gross and corrupt as Hell; the Motive all Sulphur and Salt, the Views as vitious and filthy as Words can express; that's all to be answered for somewhere else, and you take it upon your selves, so you do but marry; the Law, like Gallio, the Deputy of Achaia, cares for none of these Things, Acts xviii. 17.
But, are they the less Criminal? Is the lewd Part less offensive? Is the Soul less corrupted? Is the Man less debauched? Not at all; but rather the more: Nay, the Devil, I make no question, as he has infinitely more Advantage to prompt, fails not to make use of the Advantage, for he's no Fool: I'll answer for Satan so far, he can hardly be ever charg'd with missing his Opportunities, or not seeing his Times and Seasons; he never fails to break in at every weak Place, and always knows where those weak Places are.
We cannot doubt but the Devil, if you will grant there is such a Thing, takes all the Advantage that can be of this Part; he shews the Law protecting, and persuades you, that 'tis therefore justifying the Fact, a Fallacy as black as himself; he prompts the vitious Appetite, and then shews you how 'tis lawful to gratify it; he quotes Dryden upon you, and shews the Case of King David, and the Polygamists, for a Parallel.
What can be more specious, what more easily gilded over? Inclination calls for it, and the Law allows it. Under this Pretence, all the criminal Things which the Marriage-Bed is capable of, are justified.
But was the true intent and meaning of the Laws of God or Man impartially judged of, or enquired into, the Case would be quite otherwise. God forbid, we should dare to say, that the Institution of Matrimony, which was Pure, as the Institutor was Holy, could be designed for a Pandor to our impure and corrupt Inclinations! or that God's holy Ordinance can be made a plea for any of our unholy and vitious Practices; and, above all, that they should be made a Cover and Protection for them.
All the Heats and Fires, rais'd within us by the Acrimony of the Blood, by the Inflamation of the Spirits and Animal Salts, are kindled from Hell, set on Fire by the Devil, and made to rage and boil up in the Veins, by the inflaming vitiated Thoughts and Imagination, that Imagination which God himself says is Evil, and only Evil, and that continually; and whatever the just and serious Reasonings are which we should use upon this, and the Consequences we should draw; surely they are not that we should apply our selves to quench this Fire in the Lakes of Sodom, (I do not mean literally as to Sodom) that we should study Ways to satiate and gratify those impure Desires; and then finding some artful Method, give a loose to our Appetite under the Cover of a legal Protection, sheltering our Wickedness under the Letter of the Law.
On the other hand, if I was to enter into the Affirmative or Positive Part, and tell you what you ought to do, I should say, these are the Deeds of the Body, which you should mortify, if you will expect to live, Rom. viii. 4. the Thorns in the Flesh, which you should pray against, 2 Cor. xii. 7. the Enemies you should struggle with; and this is what the Scripture means, when it speaks of our crucifying the Flesh, with its Affections and Lusts, Gal. v. 24. But I must not Preach. To talk Scripture to a Man when he has a Woman in his Head, is talking Gospel to a Kettle Drum; the Noise is too great; the Clamour of his Vices is too loud, and he will answer coldly, as the Wise Men of Athens answered St. Paul, We will hear thee again of this Matter, Acts xxvii. 32. or to put it into a kind of a Paraphrase; We will hear thee again, some time or other, when we have nothing else to do.
I come therefore to search the Crime, and fully to expose it. Your own Reason, and, if you have any, your Religion, will instruct you to reform it. These unsuitable Matches are generally derived from these corrupt and depraved Principles; and these vile Appetites are the Things that carry us on to break into all Rules, Religious and Moral, in the pursuit of Women.
When the Appetite governs the Man, he breaks all the Fences, and leaps over all the Bars that Reason and Religion have fixed in his Way; and if he can but justify himself, by pretence of keeping within the Bounds of the Law, tho' it be only the Letter of it, he troubles not himself with the intent and meaning of it.
Hence all the Matrimonial Inequalities, the marrying at unsuitable Years, with unsuitable Fortunes, and all the indecent and ridiculous, not incestuous, Matches, which we see daily among us; so that to speak of unsuitable Matches, is far from being out of the Way of my Business, or remote from my Subject; they are, generally speaking, from the same impure and corrupt Originals, impure Streams, from the same poisoned and corrupted Fountain.
The Man is eager, urged by the Importunities of his vitiated Appetite; his Head is full of it; he runs from Place to Place to find an Object. To say his Eyes are blinded with the Fumes and Vapours of his fermented Blood, is to speak according to Nature, it cannot be otherwise; as we say Love is blind, and sees no Faults; so 'tis undoubted, the Passion is blind, the Rage of the Appetite blinds the Eyes, and he is not capable of seeing even the Defects of Nature, much less to distinguish the unsuitableness of Objects, and the inequalities of Circumstances; he is still farther off from seeing the Defects of the Mind, the Unsuitableness of the superiour Parts; 'tis all out of his Way.
As 'tis in the more vitious Part Men often abandon handsome and beautiful Ladies, their lawful Wives, and take up with the foulest, ugliest, and most disagreeable Creatures, make their Whores; so in this Humour of marrying, meerly to quench Desire, the Vapour darkens the Eyes, the Vice clouds the Sight, the Man or Woman takes what Offers, making no Judgment, no Distinction of worthy or unworthy, suitable or unsuitable, young or old; 'tis the Sexes that are only concerned; 'tis the Fire that is to be quench'd; neither Reason, Religion or Reputation, are hardly allowed to give a Vote in the Case, nay, sometimes common Sense: And, in this Heat, I say, most of the unequal unsuitable Marriages are made; and, what is it all? what can it be called? Is this Matrimony! Is this being join'd together according to God's holy Ordinance, or is it Whoring under the Mask of the holy Ordinance! Is this a chaste and honourable Marriage! Is this the Bed undefiled, or is it rather a meer Matrimonial Whoredom!
I might include in this same Chapter, the unsuitable Tempers which often come together such Occasion; but as it is true, that this is a thing not always to be avoided, and is what too frequently happens in Marriages made with the utmost Consideration; so I shall convince the Reader that I am careful not to run from the Subject in hand, by passing it over as a thing out of my Way at present. It is not always possible fully to discover the Tempers and Dispositions of one another before Marriage; and they that make the fairest and most diligent Inquiry, should first be sure they know, and regulate their own Tempers, that the Fault be not at home while they lay it upon their Relatives. But this would require a long Discourse; I have not room for it here.
Unsuitable Principles in Religion would also come in here. But, I think, the People I am describing need not quarrel much about that; for all Principles, all Religion, seems to be burnt up in the impure Flame, and therefore all Care and Concern about them dies with it: How should that Man be supposed to think of Religion, who, in spight of Reasoning, and in a perfect neglect of a Family of seven Children, could plead Necessity of having a Wife; make a thousand Shifts to turn off the scandalous Part, and yet insist upon having such a Wife as should bring him no Children; that he might satiate his Gust of Sensuality without the incumbrance of Procreation; contract Marriage with a Bar only to the original Reason of Marriage, and enjoy his corrupt Pleasures under the disguise of God's holy Ordinance. Could this Man be supposed to consider the Unsuitableness or Inequality of any thing, much less the Temper or the Principles of the Woman he married.
And the Consequence made it appear; for happening to marry a Woman that had neither good Temper, or good Principles, he ruined the Peace of his Family, dispersed and disobliged his Children, thrust them out of his immediate Care, and left their Education and Instruction to other Relations; in a word, he robb'd himself of the Comfort of his Children, and his Children of the Comfort of a Father.
And where was the Religion of all this? In short, what of Matrimony was in it all? what was it but, as I said before, a poisoned Stream from a corrupted Fountain, a dishonest Flame quenched in a dishonest Manner? And it can be no otherwise, where the Soul is governed by the Body, where the spiritual Part is over-ruled by the fleshly, where the sensual directs the rational, as is the Case here exactly; I say, it can be no otherwise. The Order of Things is inverted; Nature is set with her Bottom upward; Heaven is out of the Mind, and Hell seems to have taken Possession.
Burn inward, raging in corrupt Desires:
Such as the sulph'rous Lake from whence they came,
Alike the Fuel, and alike the Flame.
