Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/273

 Fortune; at the same time despising, and, in the vilest manner, contemning the Man; is a meer selling the Person for a Slave, or, though the Words are something harsh, prostituting the Person for the sake of the Money. And what is that more or less, according to my Notion, than Matrimonial Whoredom?

The next Article is that of Unsuitable Estates. This is of the same Kind with the last, and, in its Degree, is equally destructive; and therefore I join them together in the same Chapter; the only Difference is, that the first respects a Person of Quality marrying a Mechanick, a Patrician, or one of the Blood of the Patricii, marrying a Plebeian: But this latter looks a Stage lower, and respects only the Difference of Estates, where the Blood may be the same; which Difference, however, is carried on by some to greater Resentments than among the Nobility. This happens frequently among Tradesmen, and is distinguished by many People, very much to their Disadvantage. Sir M G was a City Baronet, that is, the Son of a Money Baronet; he married a Lady, the Daughter of a rich Citizen, not in the Bloom of her Youth, far from Beautiful; but then he had a vast Fortune with her; all this was well of his Side. But, what is she? Why, in the first Place, bringing her to a level with himself, she has a great deal of Money, that is true, and he has little or Nothing; he has a great deal of good Manners, and good Humour, she very little of either; he is Handsome, she next Door to Frightful: She insults him upon the Inequality of her Fortune. What does he say to her in return? Has he nothing to answer on his Side? Truly, no, not at first.