|
 Laugh
at these quotes from Fnclopaedia Britannica, 1771 edition; then
ask yourself if our current philosophy has produced more
happiness, better homes, or more noble lives.
FALLING IN LOVE, 1771.
“When
man arrives to a certain age he becomes sensible of a peculiar
sympathy and tenderness towards the other sex; the charms of
beauty engage his attention, and call forth new and softer
dispositions than he has yet felt. The many amiable qualities
exhibited by a fair outside, or by the mild allurement of female
manners, or which the prejudiced spectator without much
reasoning supposes those to include, with several other
circumstances, point his view and affection to a particular
object, and of course contract that general rambling regard,
which was lost and useless among the undistinguished crowd, into
a peculiar and permanent attachment to one woman, which
ordinarily terminates in the most important, venerable, and
delightful connection in life.”
—CONCERNING MARRIAGE—
“Of
the conjugal alliance the following are the natural laws. 1.
Mutual fidelity to the marriage-bed. Disloyalty defeats the very
end of marriage; dissolves the natural cement of the relation;
weakens the moral tie, the chief strength of which lies in the
reciprocation of affection; and, by making the offspring
uncertain, diminishes the care and attachment necessary to their
education.
2.
A conspiration of counsels and
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endeavours to promote the common interest of
the family, and to educate their common offspring. In order to
observe these laws, it is necessary to cultivate, both before
and during the married state, the strictest decency and chastity
of manners, and a just sense of what becomes their respective
characters.
3.
The union must be inviolable and for life. The nature of
friendship, and particularly of this species of it, the
education of their offspring, and the order of society, and of
successions which would otherwise be extremely perplexed, do all
seem to require it. To preserve this union, and render the
matrimonial state more harmonious and comfortable a mutual
esteem and tenderness, a mutual deference and forbearance, a
communication of advice, and assistance and authority, are
absolutely necessary. If either party keep within their proper
departments, there need be no disputes about power or
superiority, and there will be none. They have no opposite, no
separate interests; and therefore there can be no just ground
for opposition of conduct.
From
this detail, and the present state of things, in which there is
pretty near a parity of numbers of both sexes, it is evident,
that polygamy is an unnatural state: and though it should be
granted to be more fruitful of children, which however it is not
found to be; yet it is by no means so fit for rearing minds;
which seems to be as much, if not more, the intention of nature,
than the propagation of bodies.”
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