Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/392

 known that he contracted the Distemper before Marriage.

would it be so hard to prove the Fact as some may imagine; I mean, that it would not be difficult to state in the Terms of such a Law, certain and publick Clauses, by which the Fact should be both enquired into, and admit a fair Proof; for such is the Nature of the Contagion, that it is not easily concealed, and the Evidences may be made very clear; as particularly the Person's having been under Cure before his Marriage; such a Man ought never to dare to marry, except with the Whore who infected him; and there indeed he ought to go, that they may Rot together.

for such a Man to apply to a Woman of Virtue and Modesty; sound in Body, and andand [sic] upright in her Intention, come to her with a Contagion in his Vitals, and abuse her in such a vile, odious and abominable Kind! As the Crime is not to be named without Abhorrence and Execration, so the Criminal merits to be turn'd out of humane Society, that he may abuse no more, and may be a Terror to others.

this deserves Death as much as several Crimes, which are at this time punished with it, and particularly as much as Highway-Robbery, for the Plunder is attended with infinitely worse Circumstances, and has many worse Aggravations attending it.

I add no more. I cannot doubt but the fatal Consequences, and the frequency of this horrible Crime, (and that in these Days, I believe, more than ever) will at length awaken Justice; and we shall, one time or other, have a suitable Law to punish it; and this, I believe, would be the only Way to prevent it for the future.