Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/254

 I differ from the common Opinion here exceedingly; and I must say, that, in my Opinion, this is as much or more, a Matrimonial Whoredom than the other. The Reason is the same; the Occasion of Matrimony is the same, with this difference notwithstanding, and to the Disadvantage of the latter Case; for that, in the first Case, the lewd Part lay wholly upon the Woman, here it lies upon them both: where the old Lady married the young Man, the Matrimonial Whoredom could lye only on her Side; but here the equality of Years makes an equality of Guilt; there was a single Shame, here a double; and I am much mistaken, if two being guilty makes the Offence less than one.

can two People at those Years say for marrying, seeing they know they can have no Children? It must be for the frailer Part, which it is not my Business to name; and 'tis only contrived, in a manner, less exposed to the common Scandal of the Times; the Woman has her wanton Ends answered, without the Reproach of taking a young Fellow to Bed to her, on the Account mentioned before, and only is content to sleep with an older Bedfellow, to avoid the Scandal.

there is a worse Case in this scandalous Matrimony yet behind, and this is on the Man's Part; a flagrant Example of which take as follows: A B, a grave Citizen, and in the flourishing Part of his Years, though not in his Prime, not a Youth, being about Forty, buries his Wife; he has three or four Children by his former Lady, and cares not to have the Charge of any more, or, to use his Words, would not wrong his Children, but has