how great a Paradox soever my Opinion may seem, I
solemnly declare, I see but little Difference between having two Husbands at one
time, and at several times; and of this I am very confident, that the same
Degree of Love for a first Husband, which preserves a Woman in the one Case,
will preserve her in the other. There is one Argument, which I scarce know how
to deliver before you, Sir; but - if a Woman hath lived with her first Husband
without having Children, I think it unpardonable in her to carry Barrenness into
a second Family. On the contrary, if she hath Children by her first Husband, to
give them a second Father is still more unpardonable.«
    »But suppose, Madam,« cries Booth, interrupting her, with a Smile, »she
should have had Children by her first Husband, and have lost them.«
    »That is a Case,« answered she, with a Sigh, »which I did not desire to
think of, and, I must own it, the most favourable Light in which a second
Marriage can be seen. But the Scriptures, as Petrarch observes, rather suffer
them than commend them; and St. Jerom speaks against them with the utmost
Bitterness.« »I remember,« cries Booth, (who was willing either to shew his
Learning, or to draw out the Lady's,) »a very wise Law of Charondas the famous
Lawgiver of Thurium, by which Men, who married a second time, were removed from
all public Councils: for it was scarce reasonable to suppose, that he who was so
great a Fool in his own Family, should be wise in public Affairs. And tho'
second Marriages were permitted among the Romans, yet they were at the same time
discouraged; and those Roman Widows who refused them, were held in high Esteem,
and honoured with what Valerius Maximus calls the Corona Pudicitiæ. In the noble
Family of Camilli, there was not, in many Ages, a single Instance of this, which
Martial calls Adultery:
 
Quæ toties nubit, non nubit; Adultera Lege est.«
 
»True, Sir,« says Mrs. Bennet, »and Virgil calls this a Violation of Chastity,
and makes Dido speak of it with the utmost Detestation:
 
Sed mihi vel Tellus optem prius ima dehiscat;
Vel Pater omnipotens adigat me Fulmine ad umbras,
Pallentes umbras Erebi, noctemque profundam,
Ante, pudor, quam te violo, aut tua Jura resolvo.
Ille meos, primum qui me sibi junxit, amores,
Ille habeat semper secum, servetque