Page:Unlawfulmarriage00jane.djvu/112

108 the body of his wife was his property; therefore what was done to her, was reputed as done to her husband.

In the first paragraph, on the 14th page, the Puritan insists that the term nakedness means dishonor, both when applied to the male and to the female. Allow this meaning, and make the substitution in the 16th verse, and it will read thus: "Thou shalt not uncover the dishonor of thy brother's wife: it is thy brother's dishonor." Now, such a disclosure might, in various ways, be made, without involving an act of lewdness on the part of the author.

4. Having made these remarks on the author's critical reasoning, we go back to notice what he asserts in the first paragraph of page 11, "The term uncover nakedness," he says, "of its own force bears the idea of criminal intercourse." This we deny, and assert that the phrase, abstractly considered, in relation to females, signifies sexual intercourse; and that the character of this intercourse depends entirely on circumstances. It may be virtuous and honorable, or it may be vicious and criminal, according as it is the intercourse of persons legally