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PART V.

INFIDELITY.

It must to us appear strange that it was a frequent practice, in some parts of Greece, for men to borrow one another's wives. It was, indeed, a bad substitute for dissoluble marriage.

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We have, however, the following account of this practice among the Spartans, from Plutarch.Lycurgus, the Spartan lawgiver, thought the best expedient against jealousy, was to allow men the freedom of imparting the use of their wives to whom they should think fit, that so they might have children by them; and this he made a very commendable act of liberality, laughing at those who thought the violation of their bed such an intolerable affront, as to revenge it by murders and cruel He had a good opinion of the man, who, being grown old, and having a young wife, should recommend some virtuous and agreeable young man, that she might have a child by him to inherit the good qualities of such a father, and should

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love this child as tenderly as if begotten by himself. On the other side, an honorable man, who had love for a married woman, on account of her modesty, and the well-favouredness of her children, might with good grace beg of her husband his wife's conversation, that he might have a eyon of so good a tree to transplant into his garden; for Lycurgus was persuaded that children were not so much the property of their parents as of the whole commonwealth, and therefore, would not have them begotten by the first comers, but by the best men that could be found. Thus much is certain, that so long as these ordinances were observed, the women were far from that scandalous liberty, which hath since been objected to them."

One of the principal punishments at Sparta, says Montesquieu, "was to deprive a person of · the power of lending his wife, or of receiving the wife of another man, and to oblige him to have no company at home but that of virgins."

Lycurgus warred against the selfish principle of humanity. That, however, is a fundamental principle-the first spring of human action: it may be regulated: it cannot be proscribed. In harmony with this, and not less erroneous, was the still higher effort of the Stoics to be independent of things extrinsic, to regard only virtue.-What

a glorious people were the Greeks!—their very errors more admirable than the truths attained by other nations!

It is evident that Lycurgus thought that men's minds were more directed to the general weal of the Republic by being severed from peculiar ties. In Sparta, the children were accordingly brought up at the public expense; they were ordered to consider themselves the children of the people; and they were grateful to their country. A Spartan boy owed no gratitude to his parents: he was literally filius populi.

While, also, the virgins of Athens were guarded attentively, and almost condemned to similar confinement with those of Asia, the married women enjoyed perfect liberty, as we are informed by Xenophon. "Provided," says he, "that peace and friendship continue to reign in houses, every indulgence is discovered for mothers, by sympathising with all their natural defects; and even when they yield to the irresistible tyranny of their passions, it is usual to pardon the first act of weakness, and to forget the second."

Socrates accordingly obliged his friend and pupil Alcibiades, with the conversation for a limited period of Xantippe, a lady as remarkable for personal attractions as for impracticable temper. The laws, I may add, of that city permitted

heiresses to apply to their husband's nearest relation, in case of his impotence.

It would certainly be difficult to mention higher authorities than Lycurgus, Socrates and Xenophon, or more flourishing states than Sparta and Athens, in their times. But I hold not this as an excuse for the errors here involved.

Among the Romans, similarly, if a woman had borne her husband three or four children, a young man might borrow her for a few years of her husband, to live with him till she had brought him the number of children that he desired.

We are told by Plutarch, in his Life of Cato, that Quintus Hortensius, a man of signal worth and approved virtue, was not content to live in friendship and familiarity with Cato, but desired also to be united to his family by some alliance in marriage; that therefore, waiting upon Cato, he began to make a proposal about taking Cato's daughter, Portia, from her husband, Bibulus, to whom she had already borne three children, and offered to restore her after she had borne him a child, if Bibulus was not willing to part with her; that Cato approved very much of uniting their houses, when Hortensius, turning the discourse, did not scruple to acknowledge that it was Cato's own wife that he really desired; that Cato, per

ceiving his earnest inclination, did not deny his request, but said that Philip, the father of his wife Martia, ought also to be consulted; that the father being sent for, came; and he, finding they were well agreed, gave his daughter Martia to Hortensius, in the presence of Cato, who himself also assisted at the marriage.

Yet, Montesquieu says-"So many are the imperfections which attend the loss of chastity in women, and so greatly are their minds depraved, when this principal guard is removed, that, in a popular state, public incontinence may be considered as the last of miseries, and as a certain forerunner of a change in the constitution.— Hence it is that the sage legislators of republican states have always required of women a particular gravity of manners!"-The facts are before the reader.

Even in more modern times, this subject was much debated. Tertullian, one of the Christian Fathers, in his defence of Christianity, notices the practice: All things," says he, "are common among us, except our wives; in that one thing, we admit no partnership--that in which other men are more professedly partners." St. Austin also was one of those who wrote on this subject, and, though he seems fearful of positively countenancing it, he does not condemn it. And a recent writer says,