But the long culture which is necessary in rearing the human species, will generally afford to the parents a second pledge of their commerce, before their assistance can be withdrawn from the former.Their attention, therefore, is extended from one object to another, as long as the mother is capable of child-bearing;and their union is thus continued by the same causes which first gave rise to it.Even after this period, they will naturally be disposed to remain in a society to which they have been so long accustomed: more especially, as by living at the head of a numerous family, they enjoy a degree of ease, respect, and security, of which they would otherwise be deprived, and have reason, in their old age, to expect the assistance and protection of their posterity, under all those diseases and infirmities by which they are rendered incapable of providing for themselves.(2*)These were in all probability the first inducements to marriage among the rude and barbarous inhabitants of the earth.
As it appears to have taken its origin from the accidental and unforeseen exertions of parental affection, we may suppose that it would be commenced without any previous contract between the parties, concerning the term or duration of their correspondence.
Thus, among the Romans, it should seem that the most ancient marriage was formed merely by use; that is, by the parties, living constantly together for the space of a year; a period which, in the ordinary course of things, was sufficient to involve them in the care of a family.(3*) It is believed that the early Greeks were accustomed to marry in the same simple manner.(4*) The Kalmuck Tartars have, at present, a similar practice.Among them, it is usual for a young pair to retire, and live together as man and wife for one year; and if, during this time, the woman has produced a child, their marriage is understood to be completed; but if not, they either separate at pleasure or agree to make another year's trial.Traces of this primitive custom may still be discovered in the law of Scotland;according to which, a marriage dissolved within a year and day, and without a child, has no legal consequences, but restores the property of either party to the same situation as if no such alliance had ever existed.
Time and experience gradually improved this connexion, and discovered the many advantages of which it is productive.The consideration of those advantages, together with the influence of fashion and example, contributed to promote its universal establishment.The anxiety of parties, or of their relations, to avoid those disputes and inconveniences with which it was frequently attended, made them endeavour, by an express stipulation, to settle the conditions of their union, and produced a solemn and formal celebration of marriage.The utility of this contract, as it makes a regular provision for multiplying the inhabitants of a country, gave rise to a variety of public regulations for promoting the institution in general, for directing its particular forms, and for discouraging the vague and irregular commerce of the sexes.
The marriages, however, of rude people, according to all accounts, are usually contracted without any previous attachment between the parties, and with little regard to the gratification of their mutual passions.A savage is seldom or never determined to marry from the particular inclinations of sex, but commonly enters into that connexion when he arrives at an age, and finds himself in circumstances, which render the acquisition of a family expedient or necessary to his comfortable subsistence.He discovers no preference of any particular woman, but leaves it to his parents, or other relations, to make choice of a person whom it is thought proper that he should marry: He is not even at the trouble of paying her a visit, but allow them to begin and finish the bargain, without concerning himself at all in the matter: If his proposals are rejected, he hears it without the least disturbance; or if he meets with a favourable reception, he is equally unmoved; and the marriage is completed, on both sides, with the most perfect indifference.(5*)From the extreme insensibility, observable in the character of all savage nations, it is no wonder they should entertain very gross ideas concerning those female virtues which, in a polished nation, are supposed to constitute the honour and dignity of the sex.
The Indians of America think it no stain upon a woman's character, that she has violated the laws of chastity before marriage: nay, if we can give credit to travellers who have visited that country, a trespass of this kind is a circumstance by which a woman is recommended to a husband; who is apt to value her the more, from the consideration that she has been valued by others, and, on the other hand, think that he has sufficient ground for putting her away, when he has reason to suspect that she has been overlooked.
Young women, among the Lydians, were not accustomed to marry, until they had earned their doweries by prostitution.
The Babylonians had a public regulation, founded upon their religion, and probably handed down from very remote antiquity, that every woman, of whatever rank should, once in her life submit to a public prostitution in the temple of Venus.Areligious ceremony of a like nature is said to have been observed in some parts of the Island of Cyprus.
