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Circumstances enter into a horrid Slavery; the Woman dragged by her old Grandmother, or her thundering and threatning Parent, because the Miser can give her a Portion, or not give it her, as he pleases; can make her a Fortune or a Chamber-maid, a Lady or a Shoemaker's Wife. Under these Terrors and Obligations, she does as she's bid, and marries any Body they please, let him have Wit, Sense and Manners, or neither Wit, Sense or Manners: As she is pre-engaged, and her Affections look quite another Way; the thoughts of this Marriage are her Abhorrence, her Aversion, and yet she marries him. What must we call this? Is it Matrimony? No, no; it has nothing of Matrimony in it but the Form, 'tis all a Cheat; they lie to one another when they repeat the Words; and they both know they do so, nay, they intend to do so; as to the Consequence, you have it before, between Sir Thomas, and my Lady ——— But as to the Fact, 'tis horrid in its Nature; they are but two Victims, I cannot indeed, in one Sense, call them Prostitutes; but they are prostituted by the governing Relations, brought together by the arbitrary Authority of those that have the Influence over them: Here, says the old Father with a lordly Air to his Son, take this young Woman to Church, and marry her; perhaps the Debate has been between them before about loving her or not loving her, and the young Man has told him positively, he hates her, or that he can't love her. But 'tis all one, the old Man likes the Settlement, and tells him in so many Words, that if he won't take her, his Brother shall, and shall have his Estate too.
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