CHAP. XIV.: In what Instances Marriages between Relations should be regulated by the Laws of Nature; and in what Instances by the Civil Laws.

WITH regard to the prohibition of marriage between relations, it is a thing extremely delicate, to fix exactly the point at which the laws of nature stop, and where the civil laws begin. For this purpose, we must establish some principles.

The marriage of the son with the mother confounds the state of things: the son ought to have an unlimited respect to his mother, the wife an unlimited respect for her husband; therefore the marriage of the mother to her son would subvert the natural state of both.

Besides, nature has forwarded in women the time in which they are able to have children, but has retarded it in men; and, for the same reason, women sooner lose this ability, and men later. If the marriage between the mother and the son were permitted, it would almost always be the case, that when the husband was capable of entering into the views of nature, the wife would be incapable.

The marriage between the father and the daughter is contrary to nature, as well as the other; but it is not less contrary, because it has not these two obstacles. Thus the Tartars, who may marry their daughters This law is very ancient amongst them. Attila, says Priscus in his embassy, stopt in a certain place to marry Esca his daughter: a thing permitted, he adds, by the Laws of the Scythians, page 22. ^†450, never marry their mothers, as we see in the accounts we have of that nation Hist. of the Tartars, part 3. page 236. ^†451.

It has ever been the natural duty of fathers to watch over the chastity of their children. Intrusted with the care of their education, they are obliged to preserve the body in the greatest perfection, and the mind from the least corruption; to encourage whatever has a tendency to inspire them with virtuous desires, and to nourish a becoming tenderness. Fathers, always employed in preserving the morals of their children, must have a natural aversion to every thing that can render them corrupt. Marriage, you will say, is not a corruption: but before marriage they must speak, they must make their persons beloved, they must seduce: it is this seduction which ought to inspire us with horror.

There should be therefore an unsurmountable barrier between those who ought to give the education, and those who are to receive it; in order to prevent every kind of corruption, even though the motive be lawful. Why do fathers so carefully deprive those who are to marry their daughters, of their company and familiarity?

The horror that arises against the incest of the brother with the sister, should proceed from the same source. The desire of fathers and mothers to preserve the morals of their children and families untainted, is sufficient to inspire their offspring with a detestation of every thing that can lead to the union of the two sexes.

The prohibition of marriage between cousin-germans, has the same original. In the early ages, that is, in the times of innocence; in the ages when luxury was unknown, it was customary for children It was thus amongst the ancient Romans. ^†452, upon their marriage, not to remove from their parents, but to settle in the same house: as a small habitation was

at that time sufficient for a large family: the children Amongst the Romans they had the same name, the cousin-germans were called brothers. ^†453 of two brothers, or cousin-germans, were considered both by others and themselves, as brothers. The estrangement then between the brothers and sisters, as to marriage It was thus at Rome in the first ages, till the people made a law to permit them; they were willing to favour a man extremely popular, who had married his cousin-german. Plutarch’s Treatise, intitled, Questions concerning the affairs of the Romans. ^†454, subsisted also between the cousin-germans.

These principles are so strong and so natural, that they have had their influence almost over all the earth, independently of any communication. It was not the Romans who taught the inhabitants of Formosa Collection of Voyages to the Indies, vol. 5. part 1. An account of the state of the isle of Formosa. ^†455, that the marriage of relations of the fourth degree was incestuous: it was not the Romans that communicated this sentiment to the Arabs Koran, chap. of women. ^†456: it was not they who taught it to the inhabitants of the Maldivian islands See Francis Pirrard. ^†457.

But if some nations have not rejected marriages between fathers and children, sisters and brothers, we have seen in the first book, that intelligent beings do not always follow the law of nature. Who could have imagined it! Religious ideas have frequently made men fall into these mistakes. If the Assyrians and the Persians married their mothers, the first were influenced by a religious respect for Semiramis; and the second did it, because the religion of Zoroaster gave a preference They were considered as more honourable. See Philo, de specialibus legib. quæ pertinent ad præcepta decalogi. Paris, 1640. page 778. ^†458 to these marriages. If the ægyptians married their sisters, it proceeded from the wildness of the ægyptian religion, which consecrated

these marriages in honour of Isis. As the spirit of religion leads us to attempt whatever is great and difficult, we cannot infer that a thing is natural, from its being consecrated by a false religion.

The principle which informs us that marriages between fathers and children, between brothers and sisters, are prohibited, in order to preserve natural modesty in families, will help us to the discovery of those marriages that are forbidden by the law of nature, and of those which can be so only by the civil law.

As children dwell, or are supposed to dwell in their father’s house, and consequently the son-in-law with the mother-in-law, the father-in-law with the daughter-in-law, or wife’s daughter; the marriage between them is forbidden by the law of nature. In this case the resemblance has the same effect as the reality, because it springs from the same cause: the civil law neither can, nor ought to permit these marriages.

There are nations, as we have already observed, amongst whom cousin germans are considered as brothers, because they commonly dwell in the same house: there are others, where this custom is not known. Among the first, the marriage of cousin-germans ought to be regarded as contrary to nature; not so among the others.

But the laws of nature cannot be local. Therefore, when these marriages are forbidden, or permitted, they are, according to the circumstances, permitted or forbidden by a civil law.

It is not a necessary custom for the brother-in-law and the sister-in-law to dwell in the same house. The marriage between them is not then prohibited to preserve chastity in the family; and the law which forbids or permits it, is not a law of nature, but a civil law, regulated by circumstances, and dependent on

the customs of each country: these are cases in which the laws depend on the morals or customs of the inhabitants.

The civil laws forbid marriages, when by the customs received in a certain country they are found to be in the same circumstances as those forbidden by the law of nature; and they permit them when this is not the case. The prohibitions of the laws of nature are invariable, because the thing on which they depend is invariable; the father, the mother, and the children, necessarily dwell in the same house. But the prohibitions of the civil laws are accidental, because they depend on an accidental circumstance; cousin-germans and others dwelling in the house by accident.

This explains why the laws of Moses, those of the ægyptians See Law 8. of the Code de incestis & inutilibus nuptiis. ^†459, and of many other nations, permitted the marriage of the brother-in-law with the sister-in-law; whilst these very marriages were disallowed by other nations.

In the Indies they have a very natural reason for admitting this sort of marriages. The uncle is there considered as the father, and is obliged to maintain and educate his nephew, as if he were his own child: this proceeds from the disposition of these people, which is good-natured and full of humanity. This law, or this custom, has produced another; if a husband has lost his wife, he does not fail to marry her sister: which is extremely natural, for his new consort becomes the mother of her sister’s children, and not a cruel step-mother.