And all the paffengers he bore
Were on the new world fet afhore,
He made it next his chief defign
To plant and propagate a vine;
Which fince has overwhelm'd and drown'de
Far greater numbers, on dry ground,
URE marriages were never fo well fitted,
As when to matrimony' men were committed,
Like thieves by justices, and to a wife
Bound, like to good-behaviour, during life:
For then 'twas but a civil contract made
Between two partners that fet-up a trade;
And if both fail'd, there was no confcience
Nor faith invaded in the stricteft fenfes.
No canon of the church, nor vow, was broke
When men did free their gall'd necks from the yoke;
But when they tir'd, like other horned beasts,
Might have it taken off, and take their refts,
Without being bound in duty to shew cause,
Or reckon with divine or human laws.
For fince, what use of matrimony' has been,
But to make gallantry a greater fin?
As if there were no appetite nor gust,
Below adultery, in modifh luft;
Or no debauchery were exquisite,
Until it has attain'd its perfect height.
For men do now take wives to nobler ends,
Not to bear children, but to bear them friends;
Whom nothing can oblige at fuch a rate
As these endearing offices of late.
For men are now grown wife, and understand
How to improve their crimes as well as land
And, if they 've iffue, make the infants pay
Down for their own begetting on the day,
The charges of the goffiping difburfe,
And pay beforehand (ere they 're born) the nurfe; 3* As he that got a monster on a cow,
Out of defign of fetting up a fhow.
For why should not the brats for all account,
As well as for the christening at the fount,
When those that hand for them lay down the rate 33
O' th' banquet and the priest in spoons and plate ?
The ancient Romans made the state allow
For getting all men's children above two:
Then married men, to propagate the breed,
Had great rewards for what they never did,
Were privileg'd, and highly honour'd too,
For owning what their friends were fain to do ;
For fo they 'ad children, they regarded not
By whom (good men), or how, they were begot.
To borrow wives (like money) or to lend,
Was then the civil office of a friend,
And he that made a fcruple in the cafe
Was held a miferable wretch and base;
For when they 'ad children by them, th' honest men
Return'd them to their husbands back again.
Then, for th' encouragement and propagation
Of fuch a great concernment to the nation,
All people were fo full of complacence,
And civil duty to the public sense,
They had no name t' exprefs a cuckold then,
But that which fignified all married men ;
Nor was the thing accounted a disgrace,
Unless among the dirty populace,
His forehead 's fhot-free, and he 's ne'er the worse :
For horns (like horny calloufes) are found
To grow on fculls that have receiv'd a wound,
Are crackt, and broken; not at all on thofe
That are invulnerate and free from blows.
What a brave time had cuckold-makers then,
When they were held the worthiest of men,
The real fathers of the commonwealth,
That planted colonies in Rome itfolf!
When he that help'd his neighbours, and begot
Moft Romans, was the noblest patriot!
For if a brave man, that preferv'd from death
One citizen, was honour'd with a wreath,
He that more gallantly got three or four,
In reafon must deserve a great deal more.
Then, if those glorious worthies of old Rome,
That civiliz'd the world they 'ad overcome,
And taught it laws and learning, found this way
The best to save their empire from decay,
Why fhould not thefe, that borrow all the worth
They have from them, not take this leffon forth,
Get children, friends, and honour too, and money, 85
By prudent managing of matrimony?
For, if 'tis honourable by all confest,,
Adultery must be worshipful at least,
And these times great, when private men are come
Up to the height and politic of Rome..
All by-blows were not only free-born then,
But, like John Lilburn, free-begotten men ;
Had equal right and privilege with these
That claim by title right of the four feas :
For, being in marriage born, it matters not
After what liturgy they were begot;
And if there be a difference, they have
Th' advantage of the chance in proving brave,
By being engender'd with more life and force
Than those begotten the dull way of course.
The Chinese place all piety and zeal,
In ferving with their wives the commonweal;
Fix all their hopes of merit and falvation
Upon their women's fupererogation;
With folemn vows their wives and daughters bind, 105 Like Eve in Paradife, to all mankind ;.
And those that can produce the most gallants,
Are held the preciousest of all their saints;
Wear rofaries about their necks, to con
Their exercises of devotion on;
That serve them for certificates, to show
With what vaft numbers they have had to do :
Before they 're marry'd, make a confcience
T'omit no duty of incontinence ;
And she that has been oftenest prostituted,
Is worthy of the greatest match reputed.
But, when the conquering Tartar went about
To root this orthodox religion out,
They food for confcience, and refolv'd to die,
Rather than change the ancient purity
Of that religion, which their ancestors
And they had profper'd in so many years;
Vow'd to their gods to facrifice their lives,
And die their daughters martyrs, and their wives,
Before they would commit so great a fin
Against the faith they had been bred up in..
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