As it respects himself and the unhappy victim of his incestuous cohabitation — is it not indecent to persuade her to an act, which could she have fore- seen, would, from principles of delicacy, have pre- vented the familiar intercourse, in which, as a sister ^ she had innocently indulged ? — Nay, is it not cruel, to render the woman, who had placed confidence in him as a brother^ a partaker with him, in the fearful risks and alarming consequences of such a connec- tion ? — Is there not an ample choice among stran- gers ? Is it not one of the great objects of marriage to enlarge the domestic circle, and cement families by new relations ? And is not that great end frus- trated, by the contracted, indelicate, and indecent selection of a sister in law ? Habita est ratio rectis- simacharitatis, ut non in paucitate coarctaretur, sed latius atque niimeriosius propinquitatibus crebris vinculum sociale difFunderetur. Aug, de civit, 15, 16. " Let us study the beautiful and the venerable, as well as what is true and just, in actions, and pur^u^ every thing which shall, as such, approve itself to our consciences ; every thing in which there shall be virtue and praise. Let us always, in this view, en-
