Now, when the whole passage, as it stands in Selden, is read, how apparent is it, that the Puritan's quotation fails in presenting the true meaning of this oriental scholar. Selden here certainly considered the 6th verse of Lev. 18, a part of which he recites, as referring to incest. What is incest? The crime of cohabiting or of sexual intercourse between those who, on account of near relationship, are interdicted marriage. If a man have commerce with a female to whom he does not sustain such a relation, his sin may be fornication or adultery; but it cannot be incest. If then Selden regarded the sixth verse as referring to incest, he must have regarded all the prohibitions in the subsequent verses, which amplify and explain the general rule in the sixth, as referring to the same offence. Incest can be committed only by persons whose marriage is interdicted. The words, at the commencement of the above quotation, omitted by the Puritan, are a key to Selden's meaning, and ought to have been recited.
The words too that immediately follow his quotation, should have been connected with it; because they were necessary to let the reader
