[ 308 ]
his Command, than the Gentlemen I am speaking of do, with one Wife, and no more.
In a word; among those People, for a Man to know a Woman after she was already with Child, would be detestable, it would be an abomination to them; the Woman would refuse it with as much Resolution as she would a Ravisher, and the Man must be abandoned to all that was counted brutish and unclean, that should offer it.
Whether it be so among us, or how it is received and practised among us Christians, I leave to the general Opinion, and to private Experience, not meddling with that Part, as too gross for me; though I might give Examples too notorious, from the Mouths of our flagrant Friends of the unblushing Club at Tony's ———, and from the Testimony and Confession of abundance of the modest Society at ———'s, besides some of the Ladies who have intermeddled so lately, I do not say so decently, in the Affair, as to be partly the occasion of this very Chapter, and of all the Parts of it; of whom my wonderful Concern for their Fame, gives me leave to say no more. It were to be wished, that they would, for the future, be as careful of their own Characters, as I am.
I am sorry, after all I have said upon this filthy Subject, to observe, that here are yet no want of Advocates to defend the Practice; though I must add, that there is a perfect sterility of Argument, or, at least, reasonable Arguments, to support their Defence of it.
What they say amounts to so little, and that little is so scandalous in its Nature, andsits
