Page:Unlawfulmarriage00jane.djvu/201

Rh thesis, "(omitting verse 18 for the present,)" and add to the wife's kindred her sister, who is certainly a blood-kin of her body. Then his third aspect will read thus, "With the four nearest blood-kin of her body with whom I have cohabited."

"If affinity," inquires Omicron (p. 28, last par. but one,) "be the same with blood in the eye of the divine law, where is the limit to be drawn?" This question we answer by another. If blood be the only reason of the law, where is the limit to be drawn? We answer both by saying, The law prescribes the limit. He adds, "If my wife's sister be to me in this respect as my own sister by blood, then why does she not stand in just the same relation to my own brother? A singular question! With the same propriety might Omicron ask, If, by marriage, I and my wife are so intimately related as to be one flesh, why does she not stand in just the same relation to my own brother? Because she is not married to him.

The relation which a man bears to his brother's wife has generally been admitted to be the same as the relation he bears to his wife's sister.