and afterward notice what is said about the absence of the word marriage.
Let the reader carefully notice, that the term is not simple, but compound; a phrase, not a single word.
If the chapter devoted to the exposition of the phrase under consideration, be carefully examined, it will be found that the author overlooks the qualifying influence of the verb uncover, and confines his attention almost exclusively to the noun nakedness. This surely is not the way to explain a phrase, however it may answer for giving the meaning of a single word.
To show this to be the Puritan's mode of criticism, may be cited what is said in the beginning of the third paragraph: "But before we proceed to the proof that the word is expressive of crime." Observe, he does not say the phrase, but the word, is expressive of crime. In the last paragraph he, adverting to the phrase, says, "A careful attention to this phrase will show that it imports neither marriage, nor the intercourse of married persons, but criminal commerce, involving shame and dishonor." How does he prove this? By losing sight of the
